- Hope Hicks, Donald Trump’s longtime former adviser, took the stand Friday in his hush money trial.
- She broke down in tears shortly after Trump’s lawyers began cross-examining her.
- Hicks served as Trump campaign press secretary in 2016 and later served as White House communications director.
Would You like a feature Interview?
All Interviews are 100% FREE of Charge
Hope Hicks, a former White House aide and longtime adviser to President Donald Trump, broke down in tears on the witness stand Friday in the former president’s hush money criminal trial.
Her voice cracked as she began answering questions from defense attorney Emile Bove this afternoon. Bove asked whether the Trump Organization had created a communications director position in October 2014 to persuade her to join the company.
After answering “Yes,” Hicks grabbed a tissue and turned to her left as she sat on the witness stand. She turned her back from the courtroom audience, neither her face nor her body.
“Mr. Hicks, do you need a break?” asked judge Juan Mercian.
“Yes, please,” she replied in a cracking voice, turning away from the judge.
After the judge announced a recess just before 3 p.m., Hicks walked across the courtroom, passing Trump without looking at him.
Hicks is a key witness in the trial, potentially implicating Trump directly in what prosecutors say was an election influence scheme to buy the porn star’s silence days before the 2016 presidential election.
From the witness stand in a cold 15th-floor courtroom in downtown Manhattan, she said she was testifying pursuant to a subpoena in the historic case.
Prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office allege that President Trump falsified 34 business records to conceal an illegal $130,000 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Records presented as evidence in the trial show that the payments were made by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer and former fixer, in an attempt to buy silence about his 2006 sexual encounter with the president in 2016. The letter was sent by wire to Daniels 11 days before the election.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers argued that the payments were made to avoid personal embarrassment, not against illegal campaigning.
But Hicks, Trump’s 2016 campaign press secretary, testified that the campaign worked with Trump and Cohen when responding to media interviews about the scandal.
Prosecutors said in opening statements last week that the campaign was particularly vulnerable to perceptions of female voters after the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape. So Mr. Trump reportedly took action to prevent Mr. Daniels from going public with his affair.
“I was worried that this was going to be big news, at least the next few days,” Hicks said on the stand early Friday about her reaction when she learned of the tape.
In her testimony, Hicks showed how deeply the president and his campaign were concerned about the affair becoming public in the weeks before the election, hurting Trump.
After prosecutors finished questioning her directly, Ms. Hicks became emotional.
Her final answer helped strengthen the district attorney’s case. She said President Trump was pleased that news of his hush-money agreement with Daniels became public in 2018.
“I think Mr. Trump felt it was better to deal with it now than right before the election,” she said.
After a five-minute break, Hicks returned to the stand, blushing but calm.
On cross-examination, she helped the defense by distancing the campaign from Cohen and his hush money conspiracy.
Hicks told jurors that “he wasn’t part of the campaign days” but seemed to want to be involved.
“Is it safe to say that he was a rogue at times?” Beauvais asked her.
“Yes,” Hicks replied with a smile. “I used to say he liked to call himself the Fixer, or Mr. Fixit. But he was Mr. Fixit because he was the first to break it. I don’t know.”
During cross-examination, Hicks also described Trump as a loving husband who cared deeply about protecting his family from talk of infidelity.
“I think he didn’t want anyone in his family to be hurt or embarrassed by what happened during the campaign,” she said.
“He wanted them to be proud of him,” she added of “Mrs. Trump” and the rest of Trump’s family.
Trump, who spoke to reporters in the hallway after court, refused to answer Business Insider’s questions about his reaction to Hicks’ testimony and was held under a gag order imposed by New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Marchan. He said that he was prevented from speaking about the witnesses.
He pivoted to attacking the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, saying the office had “completely ruined and destroyed” the lives of “many great people.”
“They destroyed people’s lives. They went out and hired lawyers and have been with lawyers for years. They suck,” he said. “And it’s a shame. It’s a shame what they did.
Hicks explained the Trump campaign’s enthusiastic response to the “Access Hollywood” tape.
Hicks was one of Trump’s most trusted advisers during his rise to the presidency in 2016. Federal prosecutors previously said in court documents indicting Michael Cohen in 2019 that she could directly link President Trump to the so-called “catch-and-kill” scheme.
She officially joined the Trump Organization in October 2014 after working at the public relations firm Hiltzig Strategies. When Trump began running for president in 2015, she turned to campaigning and traveled around the country with him, she testified.
On October 7, 2016, less than a month before the election, Hicks received an email from Washington Post reporter David Farreholt informing him that he had obtained a video of a woman’s “pussy.” He sent a recording of President Trump’s remarks saying that he had “obtained” and requested the following: Response from President Trump.
She forwarded it to other campaign leaders: Jason Miller, David Bossie, Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon.
“Denial, denial, denial,” Hicks wrote in the email, suggesting one possible response.
Hicks then went to the 25th floor of Trump Tower, where Trump testified that he was preparing for a presidential debate with Miller, Conway, Bannon, Jared Kushner and Chris Christie. .
“We still didn’t know how to react,” she testified Friday. “We were trying to get information and processing the shock internally.”
Trump responded, “That’s not what he says,” Hicks said.
Ms Hicks said she was “a little taken aback” at the time and struggled to get her bearings.
“I was absolutely worried that this was going to be big news and the news cycle for at least the next few days,” she said.
“There was a consensus among all of us that the tapes were damaging,” she added. “This was a crisis.”
After a while, Trump became even more negative, Hicks said.
“It was just two guys talking in the locker room. It’s nothing to be too concerned about,” Hicks said of Trump’s attitude. “He didn’t mean to offend anyone, but he felt it was normal for two men to talk about someone.”
Hicks said media coverage of the “Access Hollywood” tape was so focused that no one was paying attention to the Category 4 hurricane that was expected to hit the East Coast at the time.
“That dominated media coverage,” she said. “I think it’s 36 hours until the debate.”
Then the storm came
Hicks said the Trump campaign realized there was a potential problem with female voters after the tapes were released.
Prosecutors suggested that the reaction to a separate investigation from a journalist, Michael Rosfeld of the Wall Street Journal, on Nov. 4, just four days before the 2016 election, influenced the dynamics.
The email came as President Trump’s private jet landed in Ohio for a “hanger rally” with planes in the background. Rosfeld was asking about a secret $150,000 agreement between American Media, publisher of the National Enquirer, and Karen McDougall. In the deal, AMI bought exclusive rights to McDougal’s story about his affair with Trump in 2006, when he was married to Melania Trump, but did not publish any articles about it.
Ms. Hicks spoke with Mr. Rosfeld on the phone, during which he also mentioned Stormy Daniels, she testified.
Hicks tried to control the story by contacting Jared Kushner, who was friendly with Journal owner Rupert Murdoch.
“He had a very good relationship with Rupert Murdoch, so he wanted to see if he could buy some more time to deal with this issue,” she testified.
“Mr. Rupert will be inaccessible,” Kushner said.
Hicks also said she contacted Michael Cohen after learning that he was involved with American Media owner David Pecker. She also contacted Mr. Pecker’s office.
Pecker explained that Karen McDougall was getting paid for magazine covers and fitness columns, and it was all very legitimate, Hicks said. “And that was the purpose of the contract.”
Hicks relayed that to Trump, then said Trump would like to talk to Pecker himself to “understand what’s going on.” Hicks testified that in another phone call with Trump, Pecker assured him that the payment to McDougal was for a fitness column.
Mr. Trump then personally drafted a campaign statement denying Mr. McDougal’s accusations or any knowledge of the deal.
An article published in the Journal mentioned an affair with Stormy Daniels and the possibility of a similar arrangement, but focused on McDougal.
In 2018, when the Journal published another article focusing on Daniels’ $130,000, Hicks was the White House communications director at the time.
Trump told her that Cohen paid her $130,000 in hush money “out of the kindness of his heart” to protect him.
Ms. Hicks testified that she found Mr. Trump’s explanation difficult to believe.
“I think that’s out of character for Michael,” she said, prompting laughter in the courtroom overflow room. “I didn’t know Michael to be particularly philanthropic or selfless. He’s the kind of person who wants credit for himself.”
This story has been updated with additional details.