Topline
Former White House aide Hope Hicks cried on the witness stand during former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial Friday when asked by his lawyer about her time working for the former president, according to multiple reports, prompting the judge to call for a break.
Key Facts
Hicks, once a close confidant to Trump who served as his press secretary during his 2016 campaign and as communications director during his presidency, began to cry when Trump’s lawyer, Emil Bove, asked about her time working for the Trump Organization.
Earlier Friday, while answering questions from prosecutors, Hicks described her conversations with former both Trump and his former lawyer Michael Cohen about allegations that Trump had affairs with porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal, including how she and Cohen exchanged text messages about the attention the initial Wall Street Journal story that broke the news was getting.
The line of questioning is designed by the prosecution to prove that Cohen directly, and illegally, coordinated with Trump’s campaign to quash the allegations in an effort to influence the election, including by paying Daniels for her silence.
Hicks also detailed the damage control she spearheaded in response to the airing of the Access Hollywood tape in which Trump describes how he could “grab [women] by the pussy.”
Hicks said she was “concerned, very concerned” when The Washington Post first alerted the campaign of its plans to publish a story about the tape, which she then forwarded to her team with the instructions to “deny, deny, deny,” according to a copy of an email prosecutors presented Friday, The New York Times reported.
Hicks testified that Trump’s initial reaction was that the comments he made on the tape “didn’t sound like something he would say”—the same defense she used in responding to The Washington Post.
While the tape is not the subject of any charges Trump faces, prosecutors have used it to describe how it sparked a concerted effort by Trump’s campaign to eliminate stories about his inappropriate behavior toward women, ultimately leading to the hush money payments.
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Contra
Hicks made several statements that could bolster Trump’s defense that his family was his primary concern regarding the affair allegations and that Cohen didn’t officially work for the campaign. “He was concerned about how it would be viewed by his wife,” Hicks said of Trump’s reaction to the affair claims. Cohen, she said “would try to insert himself at certain moments” into the campaign’s operations, adding that Coehn “went rogue” and made “unauthorized” moves, the Times reported. surprising fact
Surprising Fact
Hicks also detailed how Trump “was congratulating” former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker on unflattering coverage he spearheaded of Trump’s rivals: “This is Pulitzer-worthy,” Hicks said Trump told Pecker.
Crucial Quote
Hicks, who said she was “nervous” at the start of her testimony, spoke highly of Trump, describing him as a “very hard worker” and master at branding. Hicks’ testimony to Congress in its Jan. 6 investigation damaged Hicks’ previously tight relationship with Trump, The Washington Post reported, and she told jurors Friday she has not spoken to him since the summer or fall of 2022, around the same time she was called to testify. Hicks told lawmakers at the time that she warned Trump it was unlikely fraud in the 2020 election could have swayed the results of the contest and that Trump, in response, “said something along the lines of, you know, ‘Nobody will care about my legacy if I lose, so that won’t matter. The only thing that matters is winning.’” Hicks also criticized Trump in text messages on Jan. 6, according to evidence collected by the committee, writing, “I’m so upset. Everything we worked for wiped away.” In another message, she said “in one day he ended every future opportunity that doesn’t include speaking engagements at the local Proud Boys chapter.”
Key Background
Manhattan prosecutors called Hicks to the stand late Friday morning, after she previously testified before the Manhattan grand jury that voted to bring criminal charges against Trump last year, according to multiple reports. Hicks was one of Trump’s most trusted advisers during her time in the White House and ran damage control for some of Trump’s biggest controversies, including former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into whether Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia. Hicks—who worked previously for Ivanka Trump’s fashion company before Trump tapped her for his presidential campaign—resigned shortly after her testimony before Congress in 2018 and returned to the White House for a brief period in 2020. Trump spoke highly of Hicks when she left the White House in 2018, lauding her for her “great work,” and describing her as “as smart and thoughtful as they come, a truly great person.”
News Peg
Prosecutors charged Trump last year with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, alleging he illegally labeled reimbursements to Cohen for the hush money payments he made to Daniels as legal expenses on business records. In addition to the payment to Daniels, National Enquirer parent company American Media, Inc., made two separate payments on Trump’s behalf to McDougal and a doorman who claimed to have knowledge of a child Trump fathered out of wedlock (allegations the National Enquirer deemed were untrue), according to prosecutors and Pecker, who said Trump never reimbursed the company for those two deals. Trump’s charges do not involve the payments to McDougal and the doorman, but prosecutors have used them to illustrate to the jury their claims that Trump executed the hush money schemes to sway the results of the 2020 presidential election. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has claimed, without evidence, they were brought on President Joe Biden’s behalf to hurt his chances of winning the election.
Tangent
Hicks’ name has been raised in several instances throughout the trial, including by Pecker, who told jurors he helped coordinate hush money payments to three individuals threatening to come forward with allegations of extramarital affairs involving Trump. Pecker said Hicks was “in and out” of a 2015 meeting he had with Trump and Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen at Trump Tower where Pecker promised to be the “eyes and ears” for Trump’s campaign. Pecker also testified that Trump arranged for him to speak over the phone with Hicks and former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders in 2018, shortly after Playboy model Karen McDougal detailed her alleged affair with Trump to CNN’s Anderson Cooper. Pecker had previously arranged a “catch and kill” agreement with McDougal to buy her rights to the story, and testified that he told Hicks and Sanders he was considering amending McDougal’s agreement to prevent her from continuing to speak about the affair, adding the two “thought that it was a good idea.” Federal prosecutors, in their case against Cohen for his involvement in the hush money payments, alleged that Hicks was on a phone call with Trump and Cohen the day Trump was informed that adult film star Stormy Daniels was seeking to sell her story of an affair with Trump, along with a second phone call on the day after Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her silence, according to The New York Times. Hicks, in her 2019 testimony before Congress in its probe into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, denied any knowledge of the Daniels deal at the time it was arranged and told lawmakers she was not involved in any discussions between Cohen and Trump about the payment.
Further Reading
What To Know About The Three Hush Money Scandals At The Center Of Trump’s Criminal Trial (Forbes)