It has been noted that Michael Cohen, who has been suicidal, almost threw himself off a 21-story building on Park Avenue in Manhattan as he saw no other way out after an FBI raid turned him into a federal criminal target as a lawyer testified this afternoon in the hush money trial of Cohen’s former boss, Donald Trump via Deadline.
As the prosecutors for the Manhattan District Attorney rested their case against the former president, the lawyer, Robert Costello, was called by Trump’s defense team to discuss a meeting with Cohen. The meeting took place a week after an April 2018 raid by the FBI on Cohen’s hotel room, home, office and safety deposit box.
“He was putting on quite a show,” criminal defense lawyer Costello said, referring to the sit-down at the Loews Regency New York hotel, where Cohen was also staying with his family when the raid occurred.
It has been noted that Costello was introduced to Cohen by a mutual lawyer acquaintance to discuss Cohen’s predicament. In the meeting, a “manic” Cohen confided that two days earlier he had gone to the hotel’s roof in a moment of despair. “He was going to jump off and kill himself,” Costello testified on cross-examination by Assistant District Attorney Susan Hoffinger.
Hoffinger, who noted Costello’s dismissive attitude toward a suicide threat, reminded Costello that he called Cohen a “drama queen” when Costello testified before the grand jury investigating Trump in 2023. “You don’t like drama queens,” Hoffinger added.
It was minutes earlier that Judge Juan Merchan cleared the courtroom to discuss his unhappiness with Costello’s demeanor on the stand. Merchan had sent jurors out and scolded Costello for saying “jeez” in response to an objection from prosecutors, and for giving the judge “side eye.” However, he allowed defense attorney Emil Bove to continue questioning Costello, who was there to cast doubt on Cohen’s credibility as the prosecution’s star witness.
