Witness proposed by Trump defense to go before Manhattan grand jury Monday

NEW YORK — Michael Cohen’s onetime legal adviser is expected to testify Monday before a grand jury weighing whether President Donald Trump committed any crimes when indirectly paying off adult-film star Stormy Daniels — a development that appears aimed at discrediting a key prosecution witness.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has been examining a $130,000 payment that Cohen, Trump’s former fixer, said he made before the 2016 election that he said was to ensure Daniels’ silence about her alleged sexual encounter with Trump. Trump has denied the affair but has admitted he reimbursed Cohen for the payment to Daniels, which Trump said was made “to stop the false and extortionist accusations made by her.”

Cohen’s former adviser, Robert Costello, said he was asked by Bragg’s team to appear in front of the grand jury panel in Lower Manhattan on Monday afternoon — but Costello noted the request originally came from Trump’s legal team. Under New York law, those expecting to be indicted can ask for witnesses to appear before grand juries on their behalf.

The fact that Costello is a witness requested by the defense suggests that Trump’s lawyers believe he could muddy Cohen’s account of events surrounding the Daniels payment and the reimbursement. Costello previously told federal investigators from the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan about his discussions with Cohen, a person with knowledge of the situation said. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive situation.

Federal prosecutors charged Cohen in connection with the Daniels payments but did not charge Trump.

Cohen waived attorney-client privilege in 2019, Costello said, freeing him to tell investigators about their conversations. He declined to detail those conversations when reached by phone on Sunday.

“I think I have an ethical obligation to report what I know, once the attorney-client privilege was waived,” Costello said. “It’s too important.”

Lawyers for Trump did not respond to a request for comment. A Trump adviser, speaking on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that Costello’s appearance is the result of a move by the former president’s defense team.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office, which has met with Cohen more than 20 times since a probe began under Bragg’s predecessor Cyrus R. Vance Jr. first spoke to Costello on Friday, the person with knowledge of the situation said. A spokesperson for Bragg declined to comment. Lanny J. Davis, an attorney for Cohen, declined to comment.

Cohen has said publicly he paid Daniels $130,000 with the expectation that Trump would pay him back. Trump, in turn, reimbursed Cohen by accounting for the installments as routine legal fees, Cohen has said. Cohen, who had long fixed business and personal messes for Trump before he became president, has said Trump wanted to conceal the true nature of the payments to protect his campaign — a suggestion Trump has repeatedly denied.

Last week, Cohen testified in two sessions in front of the same grand jury that Costello will address. Cohen’s credibility has been widely criticized, and he has served prison time for lying in congressional testimony, tax evasion and campaign finance fraud related to the Daniels matter.

Trump and his allies have suggested Bragg’s probe is aimed at derailing his bid for the presidency in 2024. Trump is actively campaigning after announcing his latest bid for the White House in November.

Costello also played a role in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Mueller’s 2019 report describes interactions between Costello and Cohen; according to Mueller, Cohen began speaking with Costello in April 2018, days after Cohen’s office and a hotel room were raided by FBI agents, who seized evidence including material related to the Daniels payment.

Over emails, Costello told Cohen that he had a “backchannel” to Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. “You are ‘loved’ … they are in our corner. … Sleep well tonight[], you have friends in high places,” the Mueller report said.

Mueller indicated that the messages made Cohen feel like he would continue to have the support of Trump’s White House “if he continued to toe the party line.”

Bragg has suggested that he was reviewing all aspects of the long-running Trump investigation — which covered the former president’s dealings with banks and lenders, as well as tax practices at the Trump Organization. The grand jury has been focused on the Daniels payment, and Bragg’s team is widely believed to be focused on the possibility that Trump broke state law by falsifying business records to cover up what amounted to a campaign donation.

On Saturday, Trump used social media to call for protests in response to what he claimed would be his imminent arrest, on Tuesday, in the Manhattan investigation. His language, along with a fundraising pitch sent out by his 2024 presidential campaign, echoed rhetoric that Trump used in advance of the attack by his supporters on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

On Sunday afternoon, Trump again posted on Truth Social, asserting: “There was no crime, period.” He also labeled Bragg’s investigation as “Prosecutorial Misconduct and Interference with an Election.”

Bragg’s office is expected to meet with law enforcement and court officials early this week to discuss security concerns in the event that the former president is called to appear at the criminal courthouse in Manhattan if charges are filed.

Helderman and Dawsey reported from Washington. Azi Paybarah contributed to this report.