MSNBC: Robert Costello Faces Questions From Prosecution & Defense At Donald Trump Hush Money Trial

Source:MSNBC showing defense witness Robert Costello in the courtroom, with a cartoon.

"Robert Costello resumed his testimony in the Trump hush money trial a day after clashing with the judge over his conduct. NBC News Yasmin Vossoughian has details on what questions he has faced in cross-examination and redirect." 

From MSNBC

"Toobin: Let’s talk about the substance of Costello’s testimony, and let’s talk about Costello. Anybody remember the Mueller report? He’s actually a big figure. [Maggie Haberman] and I were just talking about this. The exchanges between him and and Cohen are, according to [former FBI Director] Robert Mueller, a dangling of a pardon from Donald Trump.

Anderson Cooper: He was allegedly sort of the emissary from Trump world to Cohen to dangle.

Toobin: Exactly, and that’s what you’re going to hear in the cross-examination tomorrow to add to this atmosphere of mafioso, stinking, corrupt relationship between Donald Trump and Michael Cohen." 

From Mediate

I'm going to get into NBC News correspondent Yasmin Vossoughian's reporting here, who I think did an excellent job of showing the Manhattan ADA Susan Hoffinger's contradicting Robert Costello's own testimony with his own emails in a minute. (How did the defense not know about Mr. Castello's background here is beyond me) But I want to get to the point that Jeffrey Toobin made last night on CNN's Anderson Cooper's 360, but CNN's coverage of this trial first.

I don't know what's going on with CNN right now. During the Trump Administration, I really thought along with The Washington Post and perhaps New York Times, that they were the gold standard when it came to reporting at the Trump White House. 

But if you look at Anderson's Cooper's interview of Bill Maher last night, they pretty much some up what CNN is about now. If you are familiar with CNN anchor Erin Burnett's tagline "facts matter", I they think they still matter for her and she still does an excellent job and might be their best anchor now. But with CNN has a whole I think they just want to sound like they're completely independent, right down the middle, not ever taking sides, but not reporting sold information that can make one side look really bad or look really good, unless they have something that makes the other side look really bad as well, or something that suggests maybe the news for one side isn't that good after all. 

When it comes to old school journalism, you are just supposed to go where the facts and evidence take you. Regardless of who it hurts. When one presidency after another from both parties think that the media coverage about their presidency was unfair, especially when most of that coverage was from mainstream news sources like NBC News, CNN, The Washington Post, etc, that generally means the mainstream media did a good job. And the same thing when one President after another from both parties thinks the coverage of their presidency was fair, that generally means they were doing a good job. 

But CNN now seems to think that the way for them to get out of 3rd or 4th place in the cable news and talk ratings, is just cover both sides equally, regardless of the facts or evidence that comes out. And why CNN is doing this, they overplayed the cross-examination of Michael Cohen by reporting that defense discovered that Cohen is a liar. When the fact is the prosecution already brought that out to the jury during their direct examination. And then they barely mention the corroboration photo evidence that the prosecution brought out yesterday, as well as the video evidence that suggest that Cohen called Donald Trump around the same time that he said he did, back in October 24, 2016, to talk about the hush money payments. 

But CNN still has Jeffrey Toobin as one of their legal analysts. And he's not there to tell the CNN viewers or CNN only things that can hurt or help both sides equally. To paraphrase Socialists: Toobin is not there to redistribute the facts and evidence equally. He's there to report and give his own evidence and analysis regardless of who it might hurt or help.

Jeff Toobin said last night on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 how Manhattan ADA Susan Hoffinger was going to cross-examine Robert Costello and he perfectly nailed it. And NBC News's correspondent Yasmin Vossoughian, perfectly laid out how Hoffinger did that by using Costello's own words and emails against him. 

While MSNBC is reporting these new damaging facts and evidence against the Trump defense (or lack of defense) CNN has nothing on the cross-examination of Robert Costello. And they wonder why they're in 3rd or 4th place and MSNBC is a soldi 2nd place in the cable news ratings right now.

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