Former lawyer of Michael Cohen alleges that he lied during Trump trial testimony

A lawyer who once worked for Michael Cohen accused him on Wednesday of perjuring himself during his testimony this week in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial.

Bob Costello, a longtime criminal defense attorney, told Congress that when Cohen took the stand on Tuesday and accused Costello of pressuring him to stay quiet about Trump in 2018, he was lying.

“I read Michael Cohen’s testimony from yesterday’s trial in New York on the way down on the train, and virtually every statement he made about me is another lie,” Costello said.

Costello’s remarks came during a House Weaponization of the Federal Government Subcommittee hearing, during which he described his experience representing Cohen for a couple months beginning in April 2018 while the Department of Justice was investigating Cohen.

A few months later, in August 2018, Cohen would plead guilty to several crimes, including tax evasion, lying to a bank, and campaign finance violations.

Costello said Cohen appeared desperate to find a way to avoid jail.

“I will do whatever the F I have to do. I will never spend one day in jail,” Costello recalled Cohen saying repeatedly during their first meeting at the Loews Regency Hotel in Manhattan.

Costello said Cohen was frantically seeking an “escape route” and had even admitted to contemplating jumping off the roof of the hotel two nights prior.

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Costello said that he advised Cohen to bring any damning information he had about Trump forward to the U.S. attorney’s office in New York, and that this could help Cohen stay out of jail. However, Cohen replied that he had no evidence against Trump.

“I swear to God, Bob, I don’t have anything on Donald Trump. … I don’t have anything on Donald Trump,” Costello recalled Cohen saying.

This story is developing.