Hope Hicks, a former close adviser to Donald Trump, was called to the witness stand in his hush money trial. It’s expected that prosecutors will question her on what she knew about payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign.
This ex-White House communications director is the first of Trump’s inner circle to testify in a case accusing the former Republican president of illicitly swaying the 2016 election by silencing women who claimed they had liaisons with him.
Hicks has been subpoenaed to testify for the nervous prosecution and admitted to being “really” as she approached the microphone. She referred to her ex-employer as “Mr Trump,” stating she had last interacted with him in late 2022.
Despite no longer being part of Trump’s close clique, Hicks painted a glowing picture of the former head of state while the prosecutor began probing her history. Within the initial minutes of her testimony, Hicks praised Trump multiple times, labeling him a “very good multitasker, a very hard worker.”
Having played the role of Trump’s press secretary during his 2016 run for office, Hicks was amongst a small group of early campaign workers who went on to positions within his administration.
Prosecutors allege that Hicks was in communication with Trump by phone amidst a desperate bid to suppress stories of his alleged extramarital affairs following the leak of the notorious Access Hollywood tape just weeks before the 2016 election. In the 2005 tape, Trump is heard bragging about groping women without consent.
Trump has consistently refuted claims of extramarital sexual encounters. The leading Republican candidate for this November’s presidential race denies any misconduct related to the case.
Michael Cohen, former lawyer and confidant to Trump and the prosecution’s key witness, has not yet appeared before the court in the ongoing hush money trial. However, jurors have been exposed to Cohen’s testimony as the prosecution seeks to directly connect Trump to payments made to silence women who had potentially damaging allegations against him prior to the 2016 election.
The second week of evidence in the trial is set to conclude on Friday, following a day where jurors were presented with what could be a pivotal piece of evidence: an audio recording of a conversation between Trump and Cohen, his then-lawyer, discussing how to handle a payment to a former Playboy model who alleged she had an affair with Trump, which he denies.
Prosecutors have been meticulously presenting evidence this week, including details of meetings, email exchanges, business dealings, and bank records, to bolster their case that Trump engaged in a scheme to illegally sway the election. They’re laying the groundwork for key testimony from Cohen, who served time for her role in paying $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet.
Trump’s legal team has been challenging the reliability of the prosecution’s witnesses, arguing that Trump’s efforts to silence the women were aimed at protecting his reputation and family, not influencing his campaign. During cross-examination of a lawyer who dealt with hush money negotiations for two women, the defense implied that Trump was actually being extorted.
A cover recording played on Thursday features Cohen discussing with Trump a strategy to buy the rights to ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal’s story from the National Enquirer to prevent its release. The tabloid had initially purchased McDougal’s story with the intention of keeping it hidden for Trump.
In the tape, Cohen mentions he had spoken to then-Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg about “how to set the whole thing up with funding.”
Trump is heard asking: “What do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?”
Trump proposed the payment be made in cash, to which Cohen responded with a firm “no.”
Trump then suggests “check” before the recording abruptly ends.
The recording was played in court analyst after Douglas Daus, a forensic from the Manhattan district attorney’s office who analyzed iPhones handed over by Cohen during the investigation, was called to the stand. Daus is set to return to the stand on Friday morning, although it remains unclear who will follow him.
This week, jurors also listened to over six hours of vital testimony from Keith Davidson, a lawyer who represented McDougal and Daniels during their negotiations with Cohen and the National Enquirer – the tabloid known for purchasing and suppressing negative stories, a practice referred to as ” catch and kill.”
On Thursday, Davidson expressed his shock that his covert efforts may have aided Trump’s 2016 election victory.
“What have we done?” Davidson texted the then-editor of the National Enquirer on election night when it became apparent that Trump would win. “Oh my god,” the tabloid editor replied.
“There was an understanding that our efforts may have in some way – strike that – our activities may have in some way assisted the presidential campaign of Donald Trump,” Davidson informed the jury.
Earlier in the day, Trump’s legal team attempted to mitigate the potential damage of Davidson’s testimony by ensuring he admitted that his contact was not with Trump directly but only with Cohen. Indeed, according to Davidson, he had not been in the same room as Trump until he gave his testimony to him.
“I had no personal interactions with Donald Trump. It either came from my clients, Mr Cohen or some other source, but certainly not him,” stated Davidson.
Trump is being faced with 34 charges concerning falsifying internal business records of the Trump Organization. The accusations are based on items like invoices and checks which were classified as legitimate expenses in the company’s records while the prosecutors assert they were actually reimbursements to Cohen for the $130,000 hush money payment made to Daniels.
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