Prosecutors brought Donald Trump’s long-time aide, Hope Hicks, to testify at his Manhattan hush money trial on Friday. She was expected to answer questions about what she knew regarding Trump’s alleged efforts to silence women who claimed they had affairs with him during his first presidential campaign.
Hicks: I forwarded the WSJ email to Jared Kushner to let him know about it and to see if he could speak to the publisher of the WSJ to buy a little extra time. I think he said he wasn’t going to be able to reach Rupert so I called Michael Cohen because he had a relationship with…
— Katie Phang (@KatiePhang) May 3, 2024
In 2019, Hicks told the House Judiciary Committee that she was instructed to publicly deny that Trump had a relationship with former Playboy model Karen McDougal. She also denied any knowledge of hush money payments.
Hicks, a former White House Communications Director and Trump campaign spokeswoman, was once considered one of Trump’s closest confidants. Despite the close relationship, she said that she hadn’t spoken to Trump since the fall or December 2022. As she took the witness stand, Trump kept a close watch on her.
At the trial on Friday, the judge overseeing the case, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, clarified Trump’s claim about the gag order. This came after Trump suggested outside the court on Thursday that the gag order might prevent him from testifying, saying, “Well, I’m not allowed to testify. I’m under a gag order, I guess.”
Judge Merchan corrected the misunderstanding, stating, “I want to stress, Mr. Trump, that you have an absolute right to testify at trial if that’s what you decide to do.” He clarified that the gag order restricts public statements made outside of court but doesn’t apply to statements made from the witness stand.
The gag order, which prevents Trump from publicly discussing witnesses, jurors, and other participants in the case, was imposed after Trump violated it multiple times. He was held in contempt and fined $9,000 for breach of the order, with prosecutors seeking further sanctions for additional violations.
Doug Daus, a forensic analyst at the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, is expected to continue his testimony on Friday.
On Thursday, Daus authenticated key digital evidence, including a September 2016 conversation secretly recorded by Michael Cohen, then Donald Trump’s fixer. The recording features Trump and Cohen discussing a deal with Karen McDougal, which the defense has tried to dissociate from Trump.
On the tape, Cohen tells his boss, “I’ve spoken to Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up,” about the Trump Organization’s longtime, twice-convicted finance chief.
“So, what do we got to pay for this? One-fifty?” Trump says during the back-and-forth, at one point ordering someone to get him a Coke.
Hicks testifies that she then went to find the group on the 25th floor to tell them about the tape. She found Jason, Kellyanne, Steve, Jared Kushner, Stephen Miller, and maybe Chris Christie. They were in the middle of debate prep in the conference room. She could not recall if…
— Katie Phang (@KatiePhang) May 3, 2024
