"You still have a lot of animosity against Michael Cohen," prosecutor Susan Cohen Hoffinger asked Michael Cohen's then-legal adviser Robert Costello after displaying emails from 2018.

"I don't have animosity but --," Costello replied before being cut off.

"Yes or no," Hoffinger said.

Hoffinger then asked Costello bluntly if he was trying to "intimidate" Cohen regarding his 2018 congressional testimony.

"Intimidate Michael Cohen?" Costello asked incredulously.

"Yes, that's my question," Hoffinger repeated firmly.

"Ridiculous, no," Costello responded.

Hoffinger then concluded her cross-examination, which was followed by a brief redirect.

"Your honor, the defense rests," the defense team told Judge Merchan.

Former President Trump did not end up taking the stand in his own defense.

Seeking to painting a picture of the machinations behind what Michael Cohen called a "pressure campaign" to keep him in the Trump fold as investigators closed in on him, prosecutor Susan Hoffinger displayed an email from Michael Cohen's then-legal adviser Robert Costello to Costello's law partner in which Costello wrote that Cohen "continues to slow play us and the president -- is he totally nuts???"

"I am in a golf tournament tomorrow early and again on Sunday. What should I say to this a------ ? He is playing with the most powerful man on the planet," Costello wrote.

"That email certainly speaks for itself, does it not, Mr. Costello?" Hoffiner asked.

"Yes it does," Costello said.

Costello insisted that he was not working to advance Trump's interests and denied the suggestion that he "lost control" of Cohen.

Prosecutors displayed an email from Michael Cohen's then-legal adviser Robert Costello to Costello's law partner Jeffrey Citron from Aug. 8, 2018, in which Costello shared a link to a Fox News story about Rudy Giuliani joining Trump's legal team.

"All the more reason for Cohen to hire me because of my connection to Giuliani, which I mentioned to him in our meeting," he wrote.

In another email, Costello said, "Our issue is to get Cohen on the right page without giving him the appearance that we are following instructions from Giuliani or the President. In my opinion this is the clear correct strategy."

Questioned on the witness stand about that email, Costello told prosecutor Susan Hoffinger that he wanted "to get everybody on the same page because Michael Cohen had been complaining incessantly that Rudy Giuliani was making statements in the press that Michael Cohen didn't approve of."

Costello told Hoffinger he has other emails clarifying that, "which I'd be delighted to tell you."

"That's all right," Hoffinger replied snarkily.

The gallery laughed, prompting a court officer to yell, "Quiet!"

Only a few minutes into prosecutor Susan Hoffinger's cross-examination of Michael Cohen's former legal adviser Robert Costello, their exchanges are already sounding tense.

Hoffinger attempted to confirm that Costello boasted about his relationship with Rudy Giuliani, but Costello denied he did so during his first meeting with Cohen.

"You are quoting from an email that is much later," Costello said.

"I am not quoting from an email," Hoffinger replied.

Hoffinger then asked Costello about his relationship with Giuliani.

"He's been to your wedding?" Hoffinger asked.

"Yes he was," Costello said.

Following a break, Judge Merchan told the parties that he had worked through his own notes and asked the lawyers for each side to weigh in on what he might have missed.

The defense sought an instruction about former President Trump regarding bias.

"We don't think that this is necessary, this charge," prosecutor Josh Steinglass said in response. "I don't think instructing the jury that they shouldn't hold bias against the defendant is necessary -- voir dire has satisfied this problem, I think."

The defense also sought an instruction that hush money payments are not inherently illegal. Prosecutors opposed it, arguing the request amounts to the judge making the defense argument for them.

Defense attorney Emil Bove also asked for an instruction that "hush money is not illegal."

"What the defense is asking," Colangelo responded, "is for you to make their argument for them."

The judge agreed with Colangelo, saying that including that language would be "taking it too far."

"I don't think it's necessary," Merchan said.