Former Trump attorney Michael Cohen departs his home for Manhattan Criminal Court May 14, 2024, for the trial of former President Trump, who is accused of covering up hush money payments linked to extramarital affairs in New York City. (Timothy A. Clary/AFP via Getty Images)
Costello recalled an interaction with Cohen in 2018, during which he said the ex-Trump attorney was "suicidal and desperately looking for an escape route" after being indicted.
"I advised him that the SDNY thought he had committed crimes and that he might have evidence they could use for a prosecution of President Trump," Costello testified Wednesday. "I explained to Cohen how he was not the target of the investigation but was a bump in the road and that the U.S. Attorney’s Office would run over him if it led them to Donald Trump."
Costello testified that he explained to Cohen that if he had "truthful information that would implicate Donald Trump, I could get him out his legal trouble by the end of the week — if he cooperated against Donald Trump."
"I emphasized that any information Cohen could give would have to be truthful, otherwise it was useless," Costello testified, saying he did this "numerous times" during their first meeting.
"Each time, Cohen said to me, ‘I swear to God, Bob, I don’t have anything on Donald Trump,’" Costello recalled Cohen saying. "Cohen must have said this at least ten times because I kept coming back to it from different approaches."
During the conversation, Costello said, Cohen told him he would do "whatever" he had to do to not spend even one day in prison.
Costello then referred back to a conversation he had on the phone with Cohen days earlier, saying Cohen indicated he was "seriously contemplating jumping off" the roof of the New York City Regency Hotel because he "couldn’t handle the pressure of the upcoming criminal case."
Costello said he pressed Cohen to reconsider.
"Isn’t it easier to cooperate against Donald Trump if you have truthful information, than it is to kill yourself?" he asked.
In this courtroom sketch from Manhattan state court in New York City May 14, 2024, Michael Cohen testifies during former President Trump's criminal trial on charges he falsified business records to conceal money paid to silence porn star Stormy Daniels in 2016. (REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg)
Costello stressed Wednesday that "the point" of his testimony is that "when Michael Cohen was presented with the opportunity to implicate Donald Trump in exchange for eliminating his own enormous legal problems, he repeatedly said he had nothing truthful on Donald Trump.
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"Now, after going to jail, Michael Cohen is on a revenge tour because he blames Donald Trump for the loss of his law license and the fact that he did go to jail," Costello said. "The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York saw this and acted properly. The Manhattan District Attorney took a different route to become famous and to ‘get’ Trump."
Costello said Cohen is "simply not a credible man," and claimed Cohen "lies when he thinks it is to his own advantage but tells the truth when it is to Michael Cohen’s own advantage."
Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, returned to the witness stand Tuesday in the NY v. Trump trial. (Getty Images)
Last year, after testifying before the grand jury, Costello told reporters Cohen was a "serial liar."
At the time, March 2023, Fox News Digital reached Cohen for comment on Costello’s claims.
"If Bob Costello's comments were any more fantastical, he would be a bestselling fiction author," Cohen told Fox News Digital last year. "It is important to note, I never slept with Stormy. I stated years ago that the payment was done at the direction of, in coordination with and for the benefit of Donald.
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"Truth is truth, and the documents in the possession of the DANY demonstrate this."
Cohen is expected to continue testimony Thursday as the prosecution wraps up its case. Judge Juan Merchan is presiding at the Trump trial.
Brooke Singman is a political correspondent and reporter for Fox News Digital, Fox News Channel and FOX Business.
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