Robert Costello, the former legal advisor to ex-Trump attorney Michael Cohen, appeared before the grand jury in the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation into former President Trump Monday, and testified that Cohen is a ‘serial liar.’ 

Costello testified before the grand jury for more than two hours Monday, as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg considers bringing charges against former President Trump. 

Those possible charges stem from the $130,000 hush-money payment that then-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, in the weeks leading up to the 2016 presidential election in exchange for her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006.

Federal prosecutors in the U.S. attorneys office for the Southern District of New York opted out of charging Trump related to the Stormy Daniels payment in 2019, even as Cohen implicated him as part of his plea deal. The Federal Election Commission also tossed its investigation into the matter in 2021.

Costello said he testified to the grand jury Monday that Trump did not know about the payments made by Cohen to Stormy Daniels. 

Costello, speaking to reporters in front of his Manhattan office after his testimony Monday, slammed Cohen as a liar. 

‘There can be no doubt in anyone’s mind that Michael Cohen has great difficulty telling the truth,’ Costello said. ‘He is, after all a convicted perjurer, and our track record with Mr. Cohen convinced us that he was a serial liar.’

‘As might be expected, Mr. Cohen’s lies were always uttered in a way that was beneficial to himself,’ Costello explained. ‘When it was in Mr. Cohen’s personal self-interest, he was capable of telling the truth, but those occasions were few and far between.’ 

Michael Cohen, in a statement to Fox News Digital, responding to Costello’s comments made during his press conference said: ‘IF Bob Costello’s comments were any more fantastical, he would be a bestselling fiction author.’ 

‘It is important to note, I never slept with Stormy, I stated years ago that the payment was done at the direction of, in coordination with and for the benefit of Donald,’ Cohen told Fox News Digital. ‘Truth is truth and the documents in the possession of the DANY demonstrate this.’ 

Cohen’s statement came after Costello’s press conference, in which he recalled a key interaction he had with Cohen in April 2018 at Cohen’s request.

‘Michael was in a manic state. He told us that he had contemplated suicide, that he had been up on the roof of the Regency Hotel the weekend before, seriously considering jumping off because he couldn’t face the enormity of the legal problems he knew were coming his way,’ Costello recalled, reminding that, at the time, Cohen’s office and home had been searched by the FBI, but had yet to be charged with any crimes.

Cohen, later in 2018, was sentenced to three years in prison in 2018 after pleading guilty to federal charges, including lying to Congress, as well as campaign-finance violations and tax evasion. Cohen pleaded guilty to arranging payments to Daniels and model Karen McDougal to prevent them from going public with alleged affairs with Trump, which Trump has repeatedly denied. 

Costello said Cohen, during that meeting, was ‘pacing like a wild tiger in a cage, back and forth, back and forth.’

‘Michael Cohen, in that state of high anxiety, when he said to us numerous times, ‘I’m looking for a way out, I need an escape hatch, how do I do this? I need to know what my options are,’’ Costello said, recalling Cohen asked if he had ‘a chance for commutation.’ 

Costello said he explained to Cohen his rights and his options.

‘The heart of it is that Michael Cohen told us that he was approached by Stormy Daniels’ lawyer and Stormy Daniels had negative information that she wanted to put in a lawsuit against Trump,’ Costello said. ‘So Michael Cohen decided his own – that’s what he told us – on his own, to see if he could take care of this.’

Costello said Cohen ‘sat with the lawyer for Stormy Daniels. They negotiated a nondisclosure agreement for $130,000.’

Costello said he asked Cohen, at the time, if the money negotiated with Daniels was Trump’s money, to which Costello said Cohen replied: ‘No, it’s not.’ 

Costello said he asked Cohen where he got it, and claimed Cohen said he took out a loan for $130,000.

‘I said, why would you do that? He said, because I wanted to keep this secret, even secret from my own wife,’ Costello recalled Cohen saying, adding that Cohen said his wife would ‘know right away’ if he took that sum of money from his own account.

Costello said Cohen told him he ‘didn’t want Melania to know’ and didn’t want his own wife to know.

Costello told reporters Monday that he testified to the grand jury that Trump did not know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels.

But Cohen has said Trump directed the payments. Federal prosecutors opted out of charging Trump related to the Stormy Daniels payment in 2018, even as Cohen implicated him as part of his plea deal.

Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 through his own company and was later reimbursed by Trump’s company, which logged the payments as ‘legal expenses.’ McDougal received $150,000 through the publisher of the supermarket tabloid the National Enquirer.

The Trump Organization ‘grossed up’ Cohen’s reimbursement for Daniels’ payment for ‘tax purposes,’ according to federal prosecutors who filed the 2018 criminal charges against Cohen for the payments. 

Trump has repeatedly denied wrongdoing with regard to the payments made to Daniels, and has repeatedly said the payments were ‘not a campaign violation,’ but rather a ‘simple private transaction.’ 

Meanwhile, Costello said that during the meeting in April 2018, Cohen said ‘‘I want you guys to know I will do whatever the f— it takes. I will never spend one day in jail.’’

‘He must have said that close to 20 times,’ Costello said Monday. ‘This was his mantra all day long. You think a guy whose mindset right at that moment is a lie, cheat, steal shoot somebody. Whatever it takes. I’m not going to jail – Well –  he went to jail, and now he’s on the revenge tour.’

Costello added: ‘I understand it, but I don’t condone it. And that’s why I went in there today – to tell these people the truth about who the real Michael Cohen is and what he was actually saying at that moment.’ 

Costello’s testimony comes as preparations are being discussed for a possible Trump indictment by Bragg. 

The Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation into Trump was opened in 2019 by then-DA Cyrus Vance. The probe was focused on possible bank, insurance and tax fraud. The case initially involved financial dealings of Trump’s Manhattan properties, including his flagship Fifth Avenue building, Trump Tower, and the valuation of his 213-acre estate Seven Springs in Westchester.

The investigation last year led to tax fraud charges against The Trump Organization, and its finance chief Allen Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty.

Far-left Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed an appeal against a ruling by the state Supreme Court preventing the state government from forcing people into quarantine and isolation if they were exposed or infected with a contagious communicable disease, according to multiple reports.

New York’s Rule 2.13, or ‘Isolation and Quarantine Procedures,’ was originally adopted in Feb. 2022, and enabled New York’s commissioner of health to direct local health authorities to issue ‘isolation and/or quarantine orders’ to ‘all such persons as the State Commissioner of Health shall determine appropriate’ in order to control the potential spread of a ‘highly contagious communicable disease.’

It also allowed any such isolation to be at home, ‘or such other residential or temporary housing location’ determined appropriate by the commissioner.

The rule was struck down in July 2022 by the state Supreme Court after a number of Republican state lawmakers, as well as personal freedom advocacy group Uniting NYS, filed a lawsuit challenging whether the rule was constitutional on the grounds that it violated separation of powers within New York’s branches of government.

James’ office, supported by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, immediately filed a notice to appeal following the ruling, and officially filed the full appeal months later on Mar. 13, the deadline to file. 

Following the appeal, the three Republican lawmakers who filed the initial lawsuit leading to the rule being struck down, state Sen. George Borrello, Assemblyman Chris Tague and now-Rep. Michael Lawler, blasted James over what they continued to argue was an unconstitutional action.

‘It is disappointing, but not a surprise, that state officials have chosen to pursue an appeal of Judge Ploetz’s ruling declaring Rule 2.13 unconstitutional and ‘null and void,’’ Borrello said in a statement. ‘Their actions are an egregious waste of taxpayer dollars and an attempt to defend an indefensible policy.’ 

Lawler echoed that sentiment in his own statement, arguing the case had been ‘on solid ground’ from the beginning, and that the ‘authoritarian-style’ procedures were ‘would have been unimaginable a few short years ago.’

‘This unconstitutional power grab must be stopped in its tracks. If Rule 2.13 is allowed to stand, I guarantee that we will see more frightening intrusions on our civil liberties in the years ahead. I am calling on the Governor and the Attorney General to accept the court’s ruling and stop this waste of taxpayer resources on this futile fight,’ Tague added in a statement.

It’s unclear why James waited roughly eight months to file the appeal, and her office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment. 

Law enforcement officials met behind closed doors Monday to discuss the logistics of arraigning former President Trump following his possible indictment over hush-money payments made on his behalf during the 2016 presidential campaign. 

A law enforcement source told Fox News Monday that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and different branches of law enforcement discussed the logistics of closing down streets and putting lights up with generators, extra barriers, and extra police. 

The source said law enforcement does not expect the former president to be arraigned until next week as the Manhattan grand jury – which has been meeting secretly to hear evidence for weeks – has another witness on Wednesday. A virtual option was apparently ruled out as the District Attorney is opposed to it.  

The source told Fox News that law enforcement is concerned about safety. If the former president does come up to Manhattan, there will be a major police presence and the area will get shut down. Trump has called on his supporters to protest ahead of a possible indictment. 

The grand jury has been probing Trump’s involvement in a $130,000 payment made in 2016 to the porn actor Stormy Daniels to keep her from going public about a sexual encounter she said she had with him years earlier. Trump lawyer Michael Cohen paid Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, through a shell company before being reimbursed by Trump, whose company, the Trump Organization, logged the reimbursements as legal expenses.

Federal prosecutors in the U.S. attorneys office for the Southern District of New York opted out of charging Trump related to the Stormy Daniels payment in 2019, even as Cohen implicated him as part of his deal. The Federal Election Commission also tossed its investigation into the matter in 2021. 

The Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation into Trump was opened by then-DA Cyrus Vance. The probe was focused on possible bank, insurance and tax fraud. The case initially involved financial dealings of Trump’s Manhattan properties, including his flagship Fifth Avenue building, Trump Tower, and the valuation of his 213-acre estate Seven Springs in Westchester. 

The investigation last year led to tax fraud charges against The Trump Organization, and its finance chief Allen Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty. 

Trump denies any wrongdoing and has slammed the Manhattan district attorney’s office probe as politically motivated.

An indictment of Trump, who is seeking the White House again in 2024, would be an unprecedented moment in American history, the first criminal case against a former U.S. president. 

Fox News’ Brooke Singman and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Two Republicans on the House Energy & Commerce Committee are making a push stop the Biden administration from banning gas stoves with legislation that has support from the committee chairman and could get a vote on the House floor this year.

The bills from Reps. Kelly Armstrong, R-N.D., and Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., are a response to the two-pronged effort seen by the Biden administration to ban gas stoves this year.

In January, a member of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said a ban on gas stoves was ‘on the table’ because of the health risks they pose to consumers. The CPSC backed down after public outrage and ridicule, but soon after, the Department of Energy proposed an energy-efficiency regulation that officials acknowledge is so stringent that 96% of the gas stoves currently in use today wouldn’t make the cut.

Armstrong’s bill would ban the CPSC from using federal funds to carry out any policy that regulates gas stoves as a banned hazardous product under current law. It also bans the CPSC from enforcing ‘any consumer product safety standards’ that would prohibit the use of gas stoves or impose regulation that would boost the price of gas stoves.

‘Inflation is hurting everyone. We have a crisis at our Southern Border. North Dakotans are worried about being able to provide for their families,’ Armstrong said in a Monday statement. ‘What is the Biden administration focused on? Controlling the kind of stove Americans use. This is further incompetence from an administration that seems more interested in dictating every aspect of our lives than solving real problems.’

The other bill from Lesko would ban the Department of Energy from finalizing, implementing or enforcing its proposed rule on ‘Energy Conservation Standards for Consumer Conventional Cooking Products,’ or any ‘substantially similar rule.’

‘The Biden administration’s extreme proposed regulation that will ban nearly every gas stove on the market is just another example of out-of-touch bureaucrats trying to control Americans’ everyday lives,’ she said.

Widespread opposition to the two Biden administration proposals means the bills have a good shot of moving ahead in the House this year, and support from Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., is an even stronger indication that the legislation will be taken up by the committee and moved to the House floor.

‘President Biden and the radical left want to use the federal government’s power to dictate what kind of car you can drive, how you can heat your home and business, and now how you’re allowed to cook food for your family,’ Rodgers said. ‘Forcing people to switch to expensive alternatives will only further increase costs on hardworking families and disproportionately harm the most vulnerable communities.’

Law enforcement across the U.S. should ‘pay attention’ to former President Trump’s calls for his supporters to protest in the event of his arrest this week, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said Sunday.

Kelly stated that Trump’s supporters have a First Amendment right to peacefully protest, but he argued that police should be prepared to ensure that demonstrations don’t turn violent. Trump claimed on Saturday that New York authorities may be planning to arrest him this week following an indictment related to his relationship with adult film star Stormy Daniels.

‘The [former] president’s supporters, they have First Amendment rights, and they should be able to exercise those peacefully,’ Kelly said during a Sunday appearance on CNN. ‘I think it’s gonna be important for law enforcement to pay attention to, you know, protests and make sure it doesn’t rise to the level of violence.’

Trump urged his supporters to ‘protest’ and ‘take our nation back’ in messages many have compared to his statements prior to the pro-Trump storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

Capitol Hill Police did not respond to a request for comment on whether they are aware of any protests planned in the event of Trump’s arrest.

Democrats on Capitol Hill blasted Trump for a Saturday morning social media post that urged his supporters to take action if he is arrested.

‘NOW ILLEGAL LEAKS FROM A CORRUPT & HIGHLY POLITICAL MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEYS OFFICE, WHICH HAS ALLOWED NEW RECORDS TO BE SET IN VIOLENT CRIME & WHOSE LEADER IS FUNDED BY GEORGE SOROS, INDICATE THAT, WITH NO CRIME BEING ABLE TO BE PROVEN, & BASED ON AN OLD & FULLY DEBUNKED (BY NUMEROUS OTHER PROSECUTORS!) FAIRYTALE, THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!, [sic]’ Trump posed to his Truth Social account.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., was among to first to attack Trump on Saturday.

‘The former president’s announcement this morning is reckless: doing so to keep himself in the news & to foment unrest among his supporters,’ Pelosi tweeted. ‘He cannot hide from his violations of the law, disrespect for our elections and incitements to violence. Rightfully, our legal system will decide how to hold him accountable.’

Democratic Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York echoed Pelosi, arguing Trump was attempting to ‘fan the flames’ of violence.

‘We live in a democracy,’ wrote Jeffries. ‘Right-wing extremists who fan the flames of political violence with inflammatory rhetoric are not fit to serve. American values over autocracy.’

Former Vice President Mike Pence spoke out against the possible arrest of former President Donald Trump, arguing the move would be a ‘politically charged prosecution.’

‘It just feels like a politically charged prosecution here. And I, for my part, I just feel like it’s just not what the American people want to see,’ Pence said when asked about the potential arrest during a Sunday appearance on ABC News’ ‘This Week.’ 

‘I’m taken aback at the idea of indicting a former president of the United States, at a time when there’s a crime wave in New York City, that – the fact that the Manhattan D.A. thinks that indicting President Trump is his top priority.’

The former vice president’s remarks come after Trump claimed on his Truth Social platform Saturday that he could be arrested on Tuesday, arguing there had been ‘illegal leaks’ of the investigation’s details to the press.

The case against Trump surrounds alleged hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels just days before the 2016 election, with investigators probing whether Trump falsified documents to hide the reason for the payments.

Trump later called for protests in response to his possible arrest, telling followers: ‘WE MUST SAVE AMERICA! PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST!!!’

Pence defended the right of Trump supporters to protest the possible arrest, so long as they ‘do so peacefully and in a lawful manner.’

Pence also decried protests such as those in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death and on Jan. 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol, arguing violent demonstrations are a ‘disgrace.’

‘The American people won’t tolerate it and those that engage in that kind of violence should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,’ Pence said.

Democrat Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said there’s ‘no reason to protest’ following former President Donald Trump’s claim he will likely be arrested this week for alleged hush money payments, appearing to echo Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s similar comment to not protest.

Warren joined ABC’s ‘This Week’ on Sunday and told host Jonathan Karl that she always worried about violence stemming from protests but said there’s no reason for Trump supporters to protest his potential arrest this week stemming from a years-long investigation surrounding Trump’s alleged hush-money payments involving porn star Stormy Daniels.

‘Violence is never the right answer, and I always worry about it. But this is another case of Donald Trump just trying to advance the interests of Donald Trump, not of the rest of the nation,’ she said.

‘There’s no reason to protest this. This is the law operating as it should without fear or favor for anyone,’ she added.

Trump took to Truth Social on Saturday and said leaks from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office indicate that he will be arrested Tuesday. 

‘NOW ILLEGAL LEAKS FROM A CORRUPT & HIGHLY POLITICAL MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEYS OFFICE, WHICH HAS ALLOWED NEW RECORDS TO BE SET IN VIOLENT CRIME & WHOSE LEADER IS FUNDED BY GEORGE SOROS, INDICATE THAT, WITH NO CRIME BEING ABLE TO BE PROVEN, & BASED ON AN OLD & FULLY DEBUNKED (BY NUMEROUS OTHER PROSECUTORS!) FAIRYTALE, THE FAR & AWAY LEADING REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE & FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WILL BE ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK. PROTEST, TAKE OUR NATION BACK!’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Toward the end of Trump’s successful 2016 run for president, his previous lawyer, Michael Cohen, sent $130,000 to Daniels to prevent her from disclosing her 2006 affair with Trump. Trump then reimbursed Cohen.

Prosecutors may bring charges against Trump related to the false recording of the reimbursements in his company’s internal records as ‘legal expenses.’

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung called the potential indictment this week a ‘witch hunt’ in comment to Fox News Digital.

‘President Donald J. Trump is completely innocent, he did nothing wrong, and even the biggest, most Radical Left Democrats are making that clear,’ Cheung wrote in a statement.

Taylor Greene made a similar remark to Warren’s about not protesting over the matter, calling on Trump supporters to not take to the streets and arguing that ‘these idiots are sealing their own fate’ in 2024 over the potential arrest. 

‘We don’t need to protest about the Communists Democrat’s planning to arrest Pres Trump and the political weaponization of our government and election interference,’ Taylor Greene tweeted Saturday. 

‘These idiots are sealing their own fate in 2024 because the silent majority has two feelings right now about the current regime. Fear and anger. That is the most powerful combination when election time comes. And the Democrats are driving that force with their own corrupt actions.’

Warren said Sunday that Trump is not ‘above the law,’ and the legal system is operating as intended.

‘No one is above the law, not even the former president of the United States. If there has been an investigation, and that investigation should be allowed to go forward appropriately. If it’s time to bring indictments, then they’ll bring indictments. That’s how our legal system works.’

Fox News Digital’s Aaron Kliegman contributed to this report.