Michael Cohen’s Former Adviser Reveals Cohen Lied About Stormy Daniels’ Trump Allegations

Michael Cohen
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Bradley Jaye

Convicted felon Michael Cohen lied under oath when making claims about Donald Trump’s alleged illegal activities involving his non-disclosure agreement with porn actress Stormy Daniels, according to Cohen’s former adviser.

Robert Costello, an attorney who served as an adviser to Cohen before the Trump “fixer” pleaded guilty to federal crimes, testified Wednesday before the House Weaponization Committee that Cohen repeatedly stated before his 2018 conviction “I don’t have anything on Donald Trump.”

Costello had advised Cohen, who was fearful after having been contacted by federal attorneys, that he could make Cohen’s legal problems disappear if he would simply turn on Trump.

He testified, “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.”

Cohen, who according to Costello lacked the cards to do so, did not make a deal that could keep him out of jail. After being advised by Costello, Cohen pleaded guilty in August 2018 to eight felony counts. When pleading guilty, Cohen claimed that Trump directed him to orchestrate Daniels’ non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

He was sentenced in December that year to three years in federal prison for the eight counts.

Yet Costello told the committee Wednesday that Cohen had stated prior to his own trial that he did not believe Stormy Daniels’s allegations that she had sex with Trump, despite Cohen’s sworn testimony Tuesday before a Manhattan criminal court. Further, Costello testified that Cohen paid Stormy Daniels on his own accord to get back into Trump’s good graces, and that Trump had nothing to do with it.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s criminal case against Trump leans on Cohen’s allegations, among others, that Trump knew of Cohen’s payments to Daniels.

Yet before his guilty plea, Cohen did not trade information that could implicate Trump, with Costello alleging Cohen had no “truthful information” to trade.

Costello, in written testimony, which he discussed under questioning by Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL), says he advised Cohen that “If Cohen had truthful information that would implicate Donald Trump, I could get him out of his legal troubles by the end of the week, if he cooperated against Donald Trump.” Costello elaborated to Steube:

I did this numerous times during our first two-hour meeting. Each time Cohen said to me: “I swear to God, Bob, I don’t have anything on Donald Trump.” Cohen must have said this at least ten times because I kept coming back to it from different approaches. Cohen kept on saying: “Guys I want you to remember, I will do whatever the F… I have to do, I will never spend one day in jail.” I even said to Cohen at one point: “Michael, now is the time to tell the truth and cooperate if you want your legal problems to disappear.” Cohen would again reply: “I swear to God, Bob, I don’t have anything on Donald Trump.”

After hearing this several times, I said to Cohen: “Michael, think about this…you said the other night you were on the roof of the Regency and seriously contemplating jumping off because you couldn’t handle the pressure of the upcoming criminal case, so I want you to consider: isn’t it easier to cooperate against Donald Trump if you have truthful information, than it is to kill yourself?” Cohen’s answer was once again the same answer: “I swear to God, Bob, I don’t have anything on Donald Trump.”

Costello recounts that “Cohen said that a lawyer for Stormy Daniels approached him and said Danials [sic] was going to allege that she had sex with Donald Trump unless Trump was willing to buy her silence with a non-disclosure agreement. Cohen decided that, while he didn’t believe the allegation, he thought the story would be embarrassing for Trump, and especially for Melania, so he decided he would take care of this himself.”

Stormy Daniels poses during her visit to The Cambridge Union on June 12, 2022 in Cambridge, England. (Photo by Nordin Catic/Getty Images For The Cambridge Union)

Stormy Daniels poses during her visit to The Cambridge Union on June 12, 2022 in Cambridge, England. (Photo by Nordin Catic/Getty Images For The Cambridge Union)

He continued, “That is contrary to what this guy testified to in court in New York yesterday.”

Costello told the committee about his discussion with Cohen regarding his reasoning for initiating and negociating the method of payment of the NDA:

I went back to that several times. You did this on your own? “On my own.” Did Donald Trump have anything to do with it? “No.” Did you get the money from Donald Trump? “No.” From any of his organizations?” “No.” From anybody connected to Donald Trump. “No.” Where did you get the money? “I took out a HELOC loan against my property.” So why would you do that? He said, “I didn’t want anybody to know where I got this money. I didn’t want Melania to know, I didn’t want my own wife to know because she’s in charge,” he said “of the Cohen family finances.” He said, “If she saw money coming out of my account, she’d asked me 100 questions, and I didn’t want to answer any of them.”

Cohen’s feelings of resentment and self-pity due to Trump not bringing him into his administration – and his  desire to get back in Trump’s good graces – fueled his decision to take the initiative with Daniels’ NDA, Costello said. He testified:

It was clear after talking to him for several days after that, whenever we talked on the phone, or in my office, that he kept on bringing up the subject that he felt he was betrayed by not being brought down to Washington D.C. This guy thought, he said to me, that he should have been Attorney General of the United States, or at least the chief assistant to the president. Ludicrous, but that’s what he thought. And he was very angry about that. He wanted to do something to put himself back into the inner circle of Donald Trump. That’s why he took care of this on his own. There had to be a motivation.

Michael Cohen is always working for things that benefit himself. And that’s what he was doing here. That’s completely different to what he said that he told the grand jury. That’s completely different to what he’s testifying to in New York.

Nobody has heard this side of the equation.

Costello testified that he is a former federal prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, at one point serving as the Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division of that office.

Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.

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