Trump Trial: ‘Contemptuous’ Defense Witness Returns to the Stand After Facing Judge’s Wrath

Even in the closing stages of Donald Trump’s hush money trial, there’s seemingly no end to the drama.

Defense witness Robert Costello—a former federal prosecutor called by Trump’s attorneys as they seek to undermine the credibility of the prosecution’s star witness, Michael Cohen—will be back on the stand Tuesday. His return comes the day after extraordinary scenes in the Manhattan courtroom that prompted Judge Juan Merchan to repeatedly rebuke Costello for his “contemptuous” behavior, even threatening to strike all of his testimony.

After Cohen finished his fourth day of testimony, jurors heard from Costello—a lawyer who once advised Cohen and acted as a backchannel between Cohen and Trump’s White House in 2018.

Read more at The Daily Beast.