Prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office rested their case on Monday after Michael Cohen, whose $130,000 hush-money payment to the adult film star Stormy Daniels is at the heart of the criminal case against Donald Trump, testified that he knew the payment violated federal election law.
The conclusion of the prosecution’s case-in-chief led to Trump’s legal team to start their defense case, including calling as a witness Robert Costello, a lawyer close to Trump’s associates who almost came to represent Cohen after he was charged by federal prosecutors with tax evasion in 2018.