Trump's hush money trial: Key takeaways from Hope Hicks' testimony

Prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office ended the week of Donald Trump's hush money trial with the testimony of a key witness – former Trump adviser Hope Hicks.

As one of the former president's closest advisers, Ms. Hicks was present at key moments in the 2016 campaign and in Mr. Trump's first year in office.

As press secretary to the king of self-promotion, she worked closely with him as Election Day approached in 2016, when the Access Hollywood tape and allegations of her affair with Karen McDougal rocked the campaign.

In about three hours of testimony, she gave jurors a first-hand look at Trumpworld during the tumultuous weeks of her campaign – suggesting strongly that her former boss was involved in the payment to Stormy Daniels.

Here are the key takeaways from the day in court:

Trump retracts Thursday's statement. The prosecution silence order prevents him from testifying

As Mr. Trump left the courtroom on Thursday and delivered his usual diatribe to the assembled media, he claimed that he had been barred from testifying in his own defense because of the confidentiality order imposed by Judge Juan Merchan.

That was completely untrue.

On his way to court Friday morning, he recanted that statement when asked if the gag order would prevent him from testifying.

“NO. It will not stop me from testifying. The gag order is not about testifying. It prevents me from talking about people and reacting when they say something about me,” the former president said, presumably after speaking overnight had been corrected by his legal team.

In the courtroom, Judge Merchan began personally clarifying the scope of Mr. Trump's confidentiality.

Merchan said diplomatically that there may be “a misunderstanding regarding the order restricting extrajudicial statements.”

“I want to emphasize to Mr. Trump that you have the absolute right to testify in court,” he said. “This is a constitutional right that cannot be denied in any way. … It is a fundamental right that must not be violated.”

The gag order restricting out-of-court statements “does not prevent you from testifying in any way … or limit or minimize your statements on the stand,” the judge added that it “does not apply to statements made on the stand.”

Hope Hicks takes the stand

In a trial full of eagerly awaited witnesses and with no published list of the order in which they will appear – to protect them from online attacks by the defendant – Ms Hicks' appearance gave the public a hard time given the way the prosecution presented its case. narrative sense.

Ms. Hicks was allegedly involved in at least 10 phone conversations with Mr. Trump and Cohen about hush-money payments and alleged refunds.

Ms. Hicks admitted with a laugh that she was “really nervous,” explaining first how she started working with the Trump family straight out of college and then working full-time with the Trump Organization in October 2014 and joining the 2016 presidential campaign team.

“Everyone who works there reports to Mr. Trump in some ways…It's a large, successful company, but in some ways it's really run like a small family business,” she testified, explaining that in June 2015 she worked every day I spoke to the candidate at the time and eventually became his press spokesman – he reported directly to him and traveled with him.

Hiccup remembers the effects of Access Hollywood Band on campaign

Ms. Hicks testified that she found out about the infamous man Access Hollywood Footage of Mr Trump making remarks about alleged sexual assaults on women on the afternoon of October 7, 2016 – just a month before the election.

She received an email from The Washington Post She sought comment from her office on the 14th floor of Trump Tower and quickly forwarded the email to other campaign officials, marking it as urgent.

“I was worried. “Very worried,” she told the court. “I was worried about the content of the email, worried about the lack of time to respond, worried that we had a transcript and not a tape. There was a lot in the game.”

Ms. Hicks recalled huddling with other campaign staffers and Mr. Trump as they hammered out a response, and that the then-candidate was upset.

She recalled being “a little stunned” and realized it was a “damaging development” that would dominate the news cycle for days. An apology video statement from Mr. Trump did little to stem the storm.

“It was intense. I would say the coverage dominated 36 hours before the debate. That's when I got the email…we were expecting a Category 4 hurricane to make landfall somewhere on the East Coast, and I don't think anyone can remember where that hurricane made landfall.”

Hicks says Trump tried to hide news of the Karen McDougal affair from Melania

Shortly before the election, Ms. Hicks was contacted The Wall Street Journal regarding a report that a woman named Karen McDougal bought a story about Mr. Trump The National Enquirer, which then never published it. The reporter wanted to know if the campaign knew anything about it.

Ms. Hicks told the court she had brought in Mr. Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to try to buy them some more time through his relationship with the court WSJ Owner Rupert Murdoch. David Pecker in demander claimed the payment to Ms. McDougal was for fitness columns and magazine covers.

Another denial was prepared and she and Cohen were in constant contact when the story was published.

“Compared to some of the other stories we've done…it just didn't have much traction,” she recalls.

Mr. Trump “was worried about the story” and Melania Trump, who found out about it, told Ms. Hicks: “He was worried about how his wife would view the story and he wanted me to make sure the newspapers didn't get to her.” Apartment were delivered tomorrow.”

After potentially weakening Trump's defense, Hicks cries on the witness stand

Under questioning by prosecutor Matthew Colangelo, Ms. Hicks testified that Mr. Trump told her that Cohen made the hush-money payment for Stormy Daniels alone.

The former president told her, “Michael felt it was his job to protect him” and that “he did it out of the goodness of his heart and didn't tell anyone about it.”

Mr Trump also said it would be better to do this when he did, rather than putting it out before the election.

Ms. Hicks was asked whether the idea that Cohen made a $130,000 payment out of the goodness of his heart was consistent with what she knew about him.

“I would say that would be out of character for Michael,” she replied.

Judge Juan Merchan rejected the defense team's objections to the line of questioning.

When asked to elaborate, Ms. Hicks said: “I didn't know that Michael was a particularly charitable or selfless person. [He was] the kind of person who is looking for credit.”

Implicitly, the former Trump adviser appeared to simplify the prosecution's case against her former boss – that Cohen did not act alone but was working on Mr. Trump's behalf, and that the actions were deliberately taken before the election.

As cross-examination by defense attorney Emil Bove began, Ms. Hicks began to cry in the witness box and a break was taken to allow her to calm down.

Cohen was “a fixer,” but “only because he broke it first,” Hicks says

When she returned to the witness stand, Ms. Hicks was highly critical of Cohen, characterizing him as an outsider in the Trump world who often turns villainous.

She testified that he did not participate in the campaign but would try to get involved at certain moments.

“He should not have taken part in the election campaign in any official capacity,” she told the court.

Additionally, she added, “He liked to call himself a fixer or Mr. Fix It. But only because he broke it first.”

Hicks paints a positive picture of Trump and his family

In addition to her scathing assessment of Cohen – a key prosecution witness – Bove also pushed for gentle questions to get a better picture of the defendant Trump while treating her more like a defense witness.

Ms. Hicks talked about her work and her relationship with her then-boss, giving the impression that damage control from destructive stories was part of her job.

Moreover, Mr. Trump ultimately cared about his family — a nod to lead defense attorney Todd Blanche's portrait of him as a consummate family man in opening arguments.

Ms. Hicks also changed the way she spoke about him, referring to him as president, as the defense said she would do at the start of the trial.

“President Trump really values ​​Mrs. Trump’s opinion,” she said of her former boss and his wife. “She doesn't interfere all the time, but when she does, it's really meaningful to him and he really respects what she has to say.”

She was “concerned about what the perception of this would be” and Mr. Trump “didn't want anyone in his family to be hurt or embarrassed,” she testified. “He wanted them to be proud of him.”

Ms Hicks' cross-examination concluded the week.

The trial continues on Monday, May 6, at 9:30 a.m.