Former White House communications director Hope Hicks took the stand on Friday in Donald Trump’s New York prison trial, a disturbing reunion for the former president and a girl who was once as soon as one in all his closest aides.
“I’m really nervous,” Hicks mentioned as she took the stand as the 9th witness to be known as in the case, and led the jury via a dramatic within account of Trump’s response to the notorious “Access Hollywood” tape that almost derailed his first presidential bid.
Hicks labored on Trump’s 2016 marketing campaign earlier than becoming a member of his management. Another witness, former National Enquirer writer David Pecker, mentioned she was once in and out of a key assembly he had with Trump and his then-lawyer Michael Cohen in 2015, the place Pecker agreed to lend a hand them suppress tales that might harm Trump’s marketing campaign.
Cohen and Pecker are key figures in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case in opposition to Trump. Prosecutors say the 3 males arranged a scheme that resulted in Cohen’s paying grownup movie big name Stormy Daniels $130,000 to stay quiet about a sexual come upon she mentioned she had with Trump in 2006. Trump later repaid Cohen in bills the DA says he falsely categorized as criminal bills.
Trump pleaded now not to blame to all 34 counts of falsifying trade data. He has additionally denied having an affair with Daniels or some other girl at the heart of the case, former Playboy style Karen McDougal.
Hicks, who additionally labored for the Trump Organization, mentioned Friday she has now not spoken to Trump in nearly two years.
She instructed the jury when she labored on Trump’s marketing campaign as his press secretary starting in 2015, they’d talk a couple of instances a day. Asked how huge their press crew was once, Hicks mentioned, “It was just me and Mr. Trump” till the later levels of his a hit run, and he or she lauded his communications and branding abilities.
“We were all just following his lead,” she mentioned.
Asked if she was once in and out of a assembly with Pecker, she mentioned she did not bear in mind however that it was once “possible.” She mentioned she remembered Trump praising articles the Enquirer had performed slamming his then-Republican competitors Ben Carson and Sen. Ted Cruz. She recalled that Trump known as a piece of writing that attempted to link Cruz’s father to the Kennedy assassination “great reporting.” Pecker testified that the piece was once a concoction.
She mentioned the dimension of the workforce had grown by means of Oct. 2016, which is when she were given an electronic mail from a Washington Post reporter with an “extremely urgent request” for touch upon what due to this fact was referred to as the “Access Hollywood” tape. The 2005 scorching mic recording comprises audio of Trump making lewd feedback about ladies and pronouncing he can grope them with out their consent.
Hicks mentioned she was once “very concerned” by means of the electronic mail — each about the contents “and the lack of time to respond.” She mentioned she forwarded the request directly to marketing campaign management, together with Kellyanne Conway, Steve Bannon and Jason Miller. She in the end discovered them altogether making ready for Trump’s debate with Hillary Clinton.
She mentioned Trump requested her what was once occurring, and he or she learn the electronic mail aloud to him. She mentioned she had a imprecise recollection of beginning to learn the transcript of his remarks that the Post reporter had despatched, and that Trump then he learn the remainder of it to himself. “That doesn’t sound like something I would say,” she quoted him as pronouncing.
When they started speaking about how one can reply, Trump instructed the tape was once now not a large deal and “not anything to get so upset over,” Hicks mentioned and he known as it “pretty standard stuff for two guys” speaking.
Hicks mentioned she was once “stunned” when she in the end heard the tape and had a sense it could be a “massive story” and a “crisis.”
The marketing campaign put out a quick remark from Trump calling the remarks “locker room banter.” He later tweeted a video remark, the place he mentioned “I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize,” earlier than occurring to assault Clinton.
Hicks mentioned a large number of Republicans denounced Trump after the unlock of the tape, and he or she reached out to Cohen to invite about some other doubtlessly destructive tape. Hicks didn’t move into element about that decision earlier than the jury, however prior to now instructed the House Judiciary Committee she’d requested Cohen to achieve out to TMZ founder Harvey Levin about the lifestyles of a rumored tape involving Trump and Russian prostitutes. The declare have been incorporated in the so-called Steele file — the salacious, in large part unverified number of Trump’s hyperlinks to Russia that was once assembled by means of a former British undercover agent.
Hicks mentioned some other disaster arose simply days earlier than Election Day 2016, when the Wall Street Journal requested her for remark about a $150,000 hush money settlement between Enquirer writer AMI and McDougal. Hicks mentioned she had by no means heard McDougal’s title earlier than, and reached out to Cohen, who she suspected was once mendacity about now not figuring out the rest about it. She then reached out to Pecker, who mentioned McDougal was once being paid for health columns and mag covers and “it was all very legitimate.”
She mentioned she labored with Trump and Cohen on a remark denying the claims. The Journal quoted her as pronouncing, “We have no knowledge of any of this” and that McDougal’s declare of an affair was once “totally untrue.”
Her testimony got here after the court docket heard from two witnesses from the Manhattan DA’s workplace.
Before testimony resumed, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche additionally argued in opposition to Judge Juan Merchan permitting into proof the 2016 Washington Post article that broke the news of the Access Hollywood tape.
Merchan had mentioned prior to now that he would permit a transcript of Trump’s remarks into proof however now not the tape itself. Blanche argued Friday that permitting the Post tale to be seen by means of the jury would result in a risk of “unfair prejudice.” The DA’s workplace mentioned the article is essential to ascertain the time period — it was once after the tape got here out that Trump’s lawyer made a hush money cost to porn big name Stormy Daniels.
The pass judgement on mentioned the two aspects must attempt to kind the timing factor out, however he instructed the DA’s workplace he did not need the jury seeing the grinning 2005 image of Trump with an actress and Access Hollywood host Billy Bush that accompanied the article, as a result of he concept it could be “highly prejudicial.”
When court docket resumed, jurors had been proven the video of the then-Republican presidential nominee pronouncing, “I was wrong, and I apologize.” They had been additionally proven an October 2016 tweet that mentioned, “Nobody has more respect for women than me!”
Prosecutors additionally displayed a 2023 Trump Truth Social post, the place he attacked Daniels, who he known as “Horseface.” “She knows nothing about me,” he wrote.
The social media posts had been entered into proof after jurors completed listening to testimony from the forensic analyst who inspected information from Cohen’s telephones, together with textual content messages and secret recordings.
As complaints started on Friday, Merchan addressed an erroneous declare Trump made outdoor of court docket a day previous.
In remarks outdoor the court docket on Thursday, Trump mentioned, “I’m not allowed to testify. I’m under a gag order” that he mentioned he can be interesting. “I’m not allowed to testify because this judge who’s totally conflicted, has me under an unconstitutional gag order,” he reiterated.
Merchan mentioned Friday rebutted Trump’s claims.“It does not prohibit you from taking the stand,” Merchan mentioned. Commonly referred to as a “gag order,” the pass judgement on’s choice is in reality known as an order “restricting extrajudicial statements” — statements made outdoor of court docket.
“As the name of the order indicates, it only applies to extrajudicial statements,” Merchan mentioned. Trump then mouthed, “Thank you.”
On the approach into court docket Friday, Trump complained “This judge has taken away my constitutional right.” “We’re filing, I think today, a constitutional motion,” he mentioned.
Merchan this week discovered Trump in prison contempt and fined him $9,000 for violating that order with 9 of his social media and marketing campaign posts. Prosecutors argued Thursday he must be held in contempt for extra alleged violations. Merchan has but to rule on the movement.
The court docket day will finish relatively early Friday. Merchan mentioned it’ll forestall at 3:45 p.m. ET as a substitute of his conventional 4:30 p.m. as a result of one in all the jurors has an appointment.
