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Cohen agrees communications with Costello were privileged due to "anticipation of potential representation"
Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked Michael Cohen to confirm even though he didn't sign a retainer agreement with Bob Costello, it didn't mean that those phone calls and meetings weren't privileged.
"Correct," Cohen says.
Cohen agreed the communications were privileged because of "anticipation of potential representation."
Blanche showed more emails between Costello and Rudy Giuliani, including from April 2018 when Costello wrote that Giuliani had joined Trump's legal team and he said his relationship with him "could be very very useful for you."
In response to Costello, Cohen wrote,"Great news for Rudy. I know I owe you a call.I have been working with lawyers all day and just now coming up for air. I will try you tomorrow."
Defense says Cohen and Costello communicated on the phone 75 times
Defense attorney Todd Blanche asks whether it would surprise Michael Cohen that he spoke to Bob Costello for more than nine hours over the course of a few months.
"No sir," Cohen said.
"So would it surprise you to learn that you actually communicated on the phone either you calling Mr Costello or Mr Costello calling you 75 times?" Blanche asked.
"Seems excessive but (long pause) possible," Cohen said.
Blanche asked Cohen who initiated more phone calls at the time, Costello or himself.
Cohen said "to the best of [his] recollection," Costello reached out more than he did.
Cohen said he also met with Costello, "I believe once or twice" in person.
Trump slapped his attorney Emil Bove on the arm to lean in to talk to him.
Defense brings up more emails Cohen exchanged with Costello
Defense attorney Todd Blanche is bringing up more emails Michael Cohen exchanged with Bob Costello. He wrote to Costello on May 15, 2018:
"As I have stated in the past, when the right time comes and now is not the right time, we will advance our conversations regarding this issue. Here are too many hands right now all with varying view points and ideas," Cohen wrote. "You can always reach out to me directly but under no circ*mstances, do I want anyone communication on my behalf with anyone else," the email continued.
Costello responded to Cohen on May 16and concluded his email, saying, "I will not pester you. If you want to talk, you know how to reach Jeff or myself."
Trump attorney presses Cohen about how he met Costello
Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked Michael Cohen to confirm he then met with Bob Costello on April 17 to discuss representinghim.
Cohen pushed back and said, "I received communications from Jeffrey Citron asking to set up a meeting with him and Bob Costello in order to discuss possible representation of me."
Blanche asked him to confirm though that they met on April 17 at Cohen's hotel where he was living at the time.
"Yes they came to me," Cohen said.
Cohen said he spoke with Costello 10 times on the phone, "maybe a few more."
Blanche entered into evidence an email Costello sent Cohen on April 23, 2018: "Michael, I spoke with the person you asked me to and he said that he would find out exactly how the matter ended up in the SDNY and in particular who in Main Justice approved this."
Cohen said the person he wanted him to speak to was Rudy Giuliani. Blanche pointed out that it was Cohen who was asking Costello to go to Giuliani for information.
More context: Blanche appears to be getting at the point that Cohen voluntarily was working with Costello more than Cohen is letting on (as was referenced in defense arguments over the Citron email about Costello this morning).
Cohen agrees he recorded conversations with reporters telling them Trump didn't know about Daniels payment
Trump attorney Todd Blanche is going through a conversation Michael Cohen had with a friend who was in jail in New York, asking whether he insisted to the friend that Trump knew nothing about the payment to Stormy Daniels.
"I don’t recall specifically saying that, but it would have been what I would have said at that time," Cohen said.
Cohen agreed that he recorded multiple conversations with reporters telling them that Trump knew nothing about the payment.
"You said it to family?" Blanche asks. "Correct," Cohen said.
Blanche asked if Cohen recalled telling one reporter, "your wife and kids had just found out two weeks earlier."
Cohen said he doesn't remember but he wouldn't be surprised if he said that at the time.
Blanche asked Cohen if before April 9, when the FBI raided his office and residence, he "had told anybody who asked that President Trump knew nothing about the payment at the time, correct?"
"That’s what I said, yes," Cohen says.
Analysis: "They're going to have to spin it so that it isn't stealing," former prosecutor says
From CNN's Antoinette Radford
Former Federal Prosecutor Alyse Adamson said she was “quite frankly shocked” when she heard the revelations that Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen had stolen from the Trump account.
Adamson said now the prosecution will have to work extra hard to change the narrative for the jury.
“They’re going to need to spin it so that it isn’t stealing.”
“If this were my case I would be feverishly writing my ideas for rehabilitation and redirection," she said.
Adamson added that she didn’t understand why the prosecution hadn’t addressed the issues earlier in the case, especially when they had been meticulous with their explanation of some of Cohen’s other lies.
“I think here, there has been so much damage that they are going to have to go in.”
Blanche turns to when the Stormy Daniels payment became public
Defense attorney Todd Blanche is now asking about 2018 and when the Stormy Daniels payment became public.
“You told multiple people when it first leaked that President Trump knew nothing about the payment, correct?" he asked. Michael Cohen confirmed that was correct.
Blanche asked, "You even called Melania, the first lady, and told her that President Trump didn't know about it." Cohen said he told The New York Times' Maggie Haberman on the record that Trump was not aware of the payment at the time.
Defense continues to press Cohen on other legal work
Defense attorney Todd Blanche continues to review Michael Cohen's other legal work.
Cohen said that he was paid $1.2 million from Novartis. Cohen agreed he spoke with them about 6 times.
Blanche asked if that's "$200,000 a communication?"
"Correct," Cohen said.
"Were there clients that you started talking to but ultimately didn’t agree to work with?" Blanche asked.
"Yes sir," Cohen said, adding that "happened quite often."
Blanche also asked about KAI, Korean Airspace Industries, where Cohen had a deal to be paid $100,000 a month for a year.
Cohen said it ended after six or seven months. He added that he had "approximately a dozen" communications with the company.
Blanche also walked Cohen through the other companies he consulted for in 2017, including BTA Bank, who paid him for two to three months, he says, and a client he met through Trump at Mar-a-Lago looking for help to restart a nuclear facility.
Evidence that Cohen stole from Trump Org. a "bomb dropped in the middle of the prosecution's case"
From CNN's Antoinette Radford
CNN legal analyst Elie Honig described revelations from Monday that Donald Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen stole from the company as a "bomb dropped right in the middle of the prosecution's case."
During the ongoing cross-examination, it was revealed that Cohen stole tens of thousands of dollars from the Trump organization.
"You can see what the defense spent their weekend doing," said CNN's Kaitlan Collins.
CNN's Laura Coates said she was surprised this evidence was coming out on the third day of Cohen’s testimony, and that the prosecution did not get on the front foot to “take the sting out” when it had a chance during direct examination.
“We’re talking about 420,000 – it’s not 15 bucks,” Coates said.
Coates said the stealing evidence goes to the heart of the case, arguing that if the defense “can establish Michael Cohen as somebody who is not to be trusted about the amount of money as well, then they might be able to establish that Donald Trump had no idea about what he was truly paying.”
Some context: In court today, it was revealed that Cohen gave RedFinch $20,000 and kept $30,000 for himself.
RedFinch is a political organization that Cohen said helped the Republican party goose bogus internet polls about which candidate was in the lead, and provided fans for Trump’s announcement of his candidacy in June 2015.
