'This is unbelievable': CNN reporter reacts to judge admonishing witness at Trump trial

Let's walk through

what's going on on the stand rig

because it sounds rather intense

The defense is called Robert Cos

as a witness.

He was a lawyer

who at one point had advised

Michael Cohen.

He in the last few weeks,

he has been coming out and sayin

that Michael Cohen

is lying about him on the stand.

He testified before Congress,

before Republicans in Congress.

And some of what's going on righ

is, for instance, Costello said

that he Cohen told him 10 to 12

during their meeting,

I swear to God, Bob,

I don't have anything on Donald

So that's

he is there

to impeach the credibility

of Michael Cohen.

But what's going on

is that Costello is really expre

disdain for Judge McCann's rulin

Costello shakes his head

as if he was exasperated, exaspe

when Judge Mershon sustained an

from the prosecution

about one of the answers.

At another time

when the prosecution objected,

Gershon

told the lawyers to approach

the bench,

and Costello

could be heard saying

on the microphone,

Ridiculous, just saying

ridiculous

while the attorneys are at sideb

Then in another time,

there was another objection

which was sustained.

Costello lets out a Jesus.

I'm that's my interpretation.

But that's how one says such a t

when they're frustrated.

Sean leans forward

and says to the witness, Mr.

Costello, sorry.

And then Beauvais returns.

No, no. And then?

And then at one point

the judge actually asks

for the for the trial to take a

He tells the jury to leave the r

This is a pretty extreme thing t

And he tells Costello in a raise

Jake, the judge has just cleared

the entire courtroom.

Here is it.

Now, this has escalated

to a security concern

and the overflow is cut.

We're not getting any more infor

I mean, the fact that

this has escalated to this exten

this is part of why

there was disagreement

within the Trump world

about whether they should call

Bob Costello.

The only reason he is being call

is because the client insisted

that he be called.

There were people on Trump's tea

that thought he would be

too much of a threat.

So that the judge has now

reprimanded him for staring him

Yeah, this is really taking it.

So, yeah, that's what I was

I was getting to that,

he told Costello in a raised voi

when he told the jury to leave.

Mr.

Costello, you're to remain seate

The jury leaves.

Then Costello

After another sustained

objection, Costello rolls his ey

lets out an audible sigh, side g

The judge,

the judge says,

I want to discuss

proper decorum in my courtroom.

The judge says,

You don't give me a side eye

and you don't roll your eyes.

The judge says

when there's a witness on the st

if you don't like my ruling,

you don't say, Geez,

you don't say, strike it.

Costello holds a long glare at t

Judge Mershon says,

Are you staring me down?

Then the judge says, Clear the c

There's yelling by security offi

at the press to leave.

The video is cut.

Court security says

nobody can come back in.

Paula, you have a JD.

You've been covering court cases

for quite some time.

Have you ever seen anything like

No.

This is unbelievable.

And I know Bob Costello quite we

I've talked to him for about a d

The fact that he would allow thi

to happen on the stand,

it suggests in many ways

that he is probably posturing

for the defendant.

Remember, it's the defendant

that overrode his own defense at

They said this is not a good ide

Do not put Costello on the stand

He overrode them

because he loved Costello's perf

in Congress last week,

where he attacked

not only Bob Costello,

but also this case and the judge

So the fact that Costello

would conduct himself in a trial

like this

potentially jeopardize a case li

I am actually pretty surprised.

But it validates the concerns

that have been expressed

by members of Trump's defense te

about why

they did not want to call

Costello

and also remind us why

when the defendant calls the sho

and not the defense attorneys,

you can have something like this

And Paula, I mean, Bob, Robert C

Bob Costello, he is an attorney,

I mean, he knows how important i

than the average

Joe on the street

to show

respect and deference

to a judge's rulings.

I mean, these are just objection

that are being sustained.

I was there last week or the wee

And, you know,

I mean, a judge machine sustains

objections from both the prosecu

and the defense.

I know the defense

doesn't think he's fair,

but as a general note,

what I saw

seemed, you know,

in keeping with courtroom procee

for him to do that,

that's that's knowing hostility.

I mean, that is knowing

animosity towards a judge's ruli

Jake, this is

this is unbelievable that he wou

in this kind of conduct, forced

the entire courtroom to be clear

I reiterate,

there have always been concerns

about Costello.

Costello is the only defense

witness called

before the grand jury in this ca

His testimony,

he said, resonated with the gran

But he didn't stave off an indic

He was not expected to be called

until late last week

when Trump said he had to be cal

This is so over the top,

undermining everything

the defense has tried to do

for their client

over the past week or so.

It's unclear

what impact

this is going to have on the cas

but this is exactly why

certain members of the defense t

did not want to call him.

But again, I dealt with him for

I am pretty shocked

that this is the way that he's

behaving on the stand.

Look, he has animus towards

Michael Cohen, no doubt.

He also has some

ill will towards the judge.

But the fact that he would engag

in this kind of behavior

in a criminal courtroom

in a historic case of this natur

is truly shocking.

Yeah.

And members

of the media

and the people in the gallery

are being

allowed back into the courtroom.

Let me get my panel to weigh in

And I apologize ahead of time, p

for when I interrupt you to tell

what's going on inside the court

But first,

let me start with Caitlin

Poland's, who's been covering th

for quite some time.

I'm pretty surprised. What about

I'm pretty surprised.

But, Jake,

this is maintaining order in the

No, no, I'm surprised about Bob

who is a

you know,

a member of the bar would say, J

when the judge it makes a ruling

He doesn't like it.

He's a he's not a he's

not he's not the defendant.

He's a witness.

Yeah.

And staring at the judge,

sighing, rolling his eyes.

That's clearly not the sort of b

that you would expect out of a w

And, you know,

we can't say exactly

why he's doing what he's doing,

but he is quite an experienced a

and he is in this circle of peop

Donald Trump

who's been on the legal side of

more often

then in this sort of position

as a witness.

He was Steve Bannon's lawyer.

He was Rudy Giuliani's lawyer.

He has been a lawyer in these ca

for quite some time.

In this context, he's a legal ad

to Michael Cohen,

trying to put that fine point

for the defense team

that Michael Cohen is a lying li

who lies.

Yeah,

Whether that's going to come acr

because of this level of disrupt

remains to be seen

will be for the jury to decide.

Elise Adamson, what do you think

What do you make of it all?

I mean, I am really shocked.

The only time I've ever seen

a courtroom cleared

is when there's

an actual security concern.

Somebody has yelled

something threatening.

The defendant has got up

and made movements toward the do

That's when they clear a courtro

So this was an extreme step,

but one that was necessary

because it is right. He.

Costello was showing

no decorum

for the court,

a complete

disrespect for this judicial pro

And you know what?

It undermines the defense's case

because they need him to be more

than Michael Cohen.

But when assessing

the credibility of a witness,

which the judge will instruct, d

is one of the things

that the jury can take into acco

when assessing the credibility

and think about the demeanor

we've just seen.

That's a ten part lottery.

What do you what do you make of

All because I have to say, Bob C

you know, elderly gentleman walk

in, has a

has a good story

to tell about why Michael Cohen

either lied then or is lying now

One of the other. Why why do thi

speculate for me?

Oh, I was good for.

My good

because I don't have a good answ

So you don't know.

But it's form speculation.

I mean, look, in

full disclosure, Bob is a friend

I've known him for for a while.

Did you expect. This? No.

Now, Bob is the former head

of the criminal division

in the Southern District

of New York, U.S.

Attorney's Office.

He's a very experienced criminal

I know that he has been frustrat

generally with the process.

I know that

when he went before the grand ju

he was very frustrated

that frustrated with what

with the district attorney

and the way that they presented

the case where

they wouldn't

ask him the questions

or let him testify about certain

And, you know,

he brought a lot of the emails

and they refused to

submit them to the jury.

So maybe this is some of that fr

boiling over.

You know,

while certainly

you don't want to have

this kind of behavior

in front of the jury,

I will tell you that, you know,

much of what we're seeing right

is after the jury left. Yeah.

And one thing I was thinking bef

before this is the volume of

of objections

coming from the prosecutor's off

It struck me that it could have

the negative impact

of the jury of saying,

oh, this is something

they really don't want us to hea

It must be something. Some.

They're there. Yeah.

I don't know if Bob, maybe

if this increases that

or if it neutralizes.

We're going to squeeze in a quic

Shinwell, I'm going to come to

you first in the next block.

I apologize. Everyone stay with

If you're just joining us,

the judge has just cleared the c

and then reopened it

after a rather tense exchange

with a defense witness.

How will this dramatic day,

19 of the hush money cover up ca

And CNN's

covering this trial gavel to gav

We'll be right back.