Maggie Haberman Says Courtroom-Clearing Fracas Hurt Trump Defense — Showed ‘Mobby’ Behavior
CNN commentator and New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman said a a dustup between Judge Juan Merchan and a witness for former President Donald Trump’s defense served to remind the jury of “mobby” behavior.
On Monday, former Michael Cohen attorney Bob Costello took the stand in the Stormy Daniels hush money-election interference trial and Costello engaged in antics that included audible disruptions and other “contemptuous” behavior that caused an angry Judge Merchan to clear the courtroom.
Haberman was a guest on Thursday night’s edition of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, during which she described the explosive scene, and said it might have given back some of the gains the defense made in cross-examining Cohen:
COOPER: So wait, everyone leaves the courtroom?
MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: They didn’t remove everyone, though.
SCANNELL: Well, they didn’t remove the politicians that were there supporting Trump.
HABERMAN: Right.
SCANNELL: But they removed the members of the media and this one row of members of the public in the courtroom.
And then we have the transcripts, so now we know what happened after that. And the judge had said to Costello, “Sir, your conduct is contemptuous right now. I’m putting you on notice that your conduct is contemptuous. If you try to stare me down one more time, I will remove you from the stand.” And Costello says, “Can I say something, please?” The judge says, “No, no, this is not a conversation.”
COOPER: Wow. Maggie, have you …
ARTHUR AIDALA: (INAUDIBLE) stuff …
HABERMAN: I don’t …
COOPER: … seen this before?
HABERMAN: … A, I’ve never seen this before. B, in a trial where Donald Trump is the defendant and the witness is the person who is drawing this kind of outrage from the judge is not what I expected, because we had been looking for Trump to be the person acting up in ways the judge would find upsetting. And he has a few times, but not like this.
But it was not entirely surprising because anybody who has dealt with Bob Costello knows that he can be a wild card. And this is why a lot of people in Trump’s world thought calling him was a risk. And we got to see what a risk it was because this all took place in front of the – except for that bit at the end. But the objections all took place in front of the jury.
The parts of cross that took place today by the prosecutors were not great for Costello. And so Michael Cohen, who is a key witness in this case, has gotten pretty roughed up by the defense, by Todd Blanche in particular or specifically, I should say. And —
COOPER: I mean, today he said he stole from the organization.
HABERMAN: Yes. And that was a key moment and in some ways was more significant than what happened last week, which was a pretty dramatic moment. But to then go into closing with what Merchan clearly thought was a sideshow, and he made that clear when he was talking about whether he even let Costello testify to certain things, have Costello behave this way and then just sort of have Costello reinforce part of what prosecutors are arguing here, which is that there is a sort of mobby aspect to this case and to a lot of the behavior by the Trump people. It just doesn’t seem to help the defense.
Watch above via Anderson Cooper 360.
