White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, one of President Trump’s closest aides and advisers, arrives to meet behind closed doors with the House Intelligence Committee at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 27, 2018.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
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J. Scott Applewhite/AP
White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, one of President Trump’s closest aides and advisers, arrives to meet behind closed doors with the House Intelligence Committee at the Capitol in Washington, Feb. 27, 2018.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
NEW YORK — Trump-era White House adviser and communications director Hope Hicks testified Friday in the criminal trial of former President Donald Trump.
Hicks’ name was brought up by several witnesses who testified before him. Prosecutors questioned him about his knowledge of the deal between Trump and the leadership National Enquirer The tabloid is meant to “catch and kill” stories that could damage his 2016 presidential campaign and the campaign’s way of dealing with the media fallout from those stories.
Hicks was the ninth witness to testify against the former president in Manhattan. Trump faces 34 felony charges alleging he falsified New York business records to conceal damaging information to influence the 2016 presidential election. Trump claims the lawsuit itself is “election interference” because of how it is hindering his 2024 bid for the presidency because he must appear in court every day and cannot campaign when he attends.
On social media and in front of reporters outside the courtroom, Trump repeated his claim that the trial was a witch hunt. Although he said he could not comment on the testimony because of the gag order, he said he was “very interested in what happened today.”
Who is Hope Hicks? And how does she fit into the prosecution’s case?
Hicks has worked for Trump since 2014 when she worked for the former president’s daughter Ivanka Trump and the Trump Organization under Trump himself. Hicks joined Trump’s first presidential campaign in 2015 as press secretary. After Trump was elected, she joined the administration as director of strategic communications and later director of communications. He resigned from the role in 2018.
Hicks joined Fox Corp. as chief communications officer and executive vice president, but returned to the White House in 2020 as an adviser to Ivanka’s husband Jared Kushner and Trump.
Hicks’ initial testimony detailed her history with the Trump family in both business and politics. While on the stand, he described moments in which access hollywood tape What came out first and the campaign’s reaction to it.
Hicks also testified about receiving a media inquiry. wall street journal Reporter who sought comment from the campaign for a story on allegations he had an affair with Trump Slacker Model Karen McDougall and adult film star Stormy Daniels. Trump has denied both allegations.
He admitted that during that time Trump’s supporters were focused on the elections. Hicks said it would have been out of character for Cohen to release the payment to Daniels “out of the kindness of his heart”, as he said Trump had then suggested to him.
Hicks said she did not know Cohen was a “philanthropist” and “the kind of person who wants credit.”
In earlier testimony, David Pecker, former publisher of National Enquirer, testified that Hicks had come in and out of their initial meeting in August 2015, where a deal was made to aid the campaign. Hicks also worked for a communications and strategy firm that worked with American Media Inc., which at the time owned National Enquirer,
In testimony Friday, she said she remembered frequently going to and from meetings with Trump at Trump Tower and that she had seen Pecker at Trump Tower, but she did not remember details of any meetings.
During opening statements, prosecutors noted access hollywood tape Was issued a month before the elections.
“The campaign immediately went into damage control mode,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said in opening statements, adding that Trump received news the next day that another woman — Daniels — had come forward about her alleged sexual relationship with the GOP nominee. was about to.
The story of infidelity with a porn star could have been damaging to the campaign, Colangelo said, and Trump “wanted to prevent American voters from learning about that information before Election Day.”
Hundreds of pages of court papers were made public in 2019 and showed communications between Hicks, Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen, Pecker, Trump and others in the lead up to the release of the tapes and the settlement with Daniels.
The payments made constitute 34 “fake” business records that prosecutors accused Trump of. In opening statements, prosecutors argued that Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen presented 11 “fraudulent invoices” paid by check, which had “false entries” signed by Trump.
Trump has pleaded not guilty and instead argued that all he did was pay his lawyer.
What did Trump’s lawyers ask him?
When Hicks was asked about her history with the Trump Organization, she became emotional and asked for a break.
When asked if Cohen was on the campaign, Hicks said not formally and provided individual advice to the campaign, although Cohen made statements and made TV appearances. He noted that Cohen would call himself Trump’s “fixer.”
“I used to say he liked to call himself the Fixer or Mr. Fix It, and that was only because he broke it first,” Hicks said to laughter in the courtroom.
Trump’s attorney Emile Bowe also asked Hicks if it was a routine practice to work with the media to promote stories like the one that promoted positive stories.
Hicks acknowledged that this was common in the Trump campaign, saying, “I was only on one campaign, and it was great.” “If it weren’t for this regular practice I wouldn’t have a job.”
While answering questions from prosecutors, Hicks also said that when media reports first emerged about the payments and alleged affairs, Trump was concerned about the story and how it would be viewed by his wife, Melania. “He wanted to ensure that newspapers were not delivered to his residence that morning,” he said.
In opening statements, Trump’s lawyers aimed to establish that any payments to keep the stories away from the press had less to do with the election and more to do with Trump protecting his family.
Who else has the jury heard so far?
Jurors heard from eight other witnesses including:
- david peckerFormer CEO of American Media Inc. He testified in 2015 about making a deal with Trump and Cohen to help Trump’s campaign by finding potentially damaging stories and helping them kill them.
- keith davidsonFormer attorney at McDougall & Daniels Who negotiated their payment in exchange for the rights to their stories. He testified and verified various text messages, phone calls and conversations related to the deals.
- Rona Graff is a longtime executive assistant at the Trump Organization. She testified against her former boss about how she entered McDougal and Daniels’ contact information into the Trump Organization’s directory. Her testimony verified Trump’s contact lists.
- Gary Farro, former banker at First Republic Bank. He testified about opening accounts for Cohen that would eventually be used to pay Daniels. He said that if he had known what the accounts would be used for, they probably would never have been opened.
- Robert Browning, C-SPAN’s executive director of archives. They verified two 2016 Trump campaign clips and a 2017 press conference clip where Trump called Cohen a talented lawyer and where Trump called the women’s allegations lies.
- Philip Thompson of Esquire Deposition Solutions. He verified the video and transcript of a 2022 statement Trump made in a civil defamation lawsuit against author E. Jean Carroll. In a video clip played from the statement, Trump confirmed, among other things, that his wife, Melania Trump, and his Truth Social handle.
- Doug Douse, a supervising forensic analyst in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. He testified to authenticate the phone data; Prosecutors played a recording of Cohen and Trump in which Cohen can be heard saying to Trump, “I need to open a company to transfer all the information about our friend David.”
- Georgia Longstreet, a paralegal in the Manhattan DA’s office, He testified about analyzing Trump’s social media posts.
