Her voice cracked as she started answering questions within the afternoon from protection lawyer Emil Bove, who had requested her whether or not the Trump Group created the place of communications director to steer her to hitch the corporate in October 2014.
After answering “sure,” Hicks grabbed a tissue and turned to her left whereas sitting on the witness stand. She turned her face and physique away from the courtroom viewers.
“Ms. Hicks, do you want a break?” the trial decide, Juan Merchan, requested.
“Sure, please,” she responded in a cracked voice, whereas going through away from the decide.
After the decide introduced a break simply earlier than 3 p.m., Hicks walked throughout the courtroom, passing by Trump with out him.
Hicks is a key witness within the trial, probably linking Trump on to what prosecutors name an election-influencing scheme to buy a porn star’s silence within the days earlier than the 2016 presidential election.
On the stand within the chilly Fifteenth-floor downtown Manhattan courtroom, she mentioned she was testifying pursuant to a subpoena within the historic case.
Prosecutors within the Manhattan District Legal professional’s Workplace allege Trump falsified 34 enterprise data with a purpose to cowl up an unlawful $130,000 hush-money cost to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The cost, delivered by Trump’s ex-personal lawyer and former fixer Michael Cohen, was wired to Daniels 11 days earlier than the 2016 presidential election to purchase her silence over a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, in response to data proven as proof within the trial.
Trump’s attorneys have claimed the cost was not an unlawful marketing campaign contradiction, and it was made to keep away from private embarrassment.
However Hicks — Trump’s 2016 marketing campaign press secretary — testified about working with Trump and Cohen because the marketing campaign responded to media inquiries concerning the scandal.
Of their opening statements final week, prosecutors mentioned the marketing campaign was notably weak to the perceptions of feminine voters following the publication of the “Entry Hollywood” tape. And so Trump sprung into motion to dam Daniels from going public about an affair she says she had with him, they mentioned.
“I used to be positively involved this was going to be a large story and make the information cycle for the following couple of days — a minimum of,” Hicks mentioned on the witness stand earlier Friday, describing her response to studying of the tape.
In her testimony, Hicks harm Trump by exhibiting how deeply he — and the marketing campaign — frightened about infidelity tales going public within the weeks earlier than the election.
Hicks grew to become emotional as prosecutors wrapped up their direct examination of her.
Her ultimate reply helped bolster the district lawyer’s case. She mentioned Trump was glad that information of the hush-money association with Daniels had turn out to be public in 2018.
“I feel it was Mr. Trump’s feeling that it was higher to be coping with it now,” she mentioned, “fairly than simply earlier than the election.”
Hicks took the witness stand once more after a five-minute break, trying flushed however calmer.
On cross-examination, she helped the protection by distancing the marketing campaign from Cohen and his hush-money machinations.
“He was not looped in on the day-to-day” of the marketing campaign, although he appeared to wish to be, Hicks informed jurors.
“He went rogue at instances, it was truthful to say?” Bove requested her.
“Sure,” Hicks answered, smiling. “I used to say that he likes to name himself a fixer or Mr. Fixit. Nevertheless it was solely as a result of he first broke it that he was Mr. Fixit.”
Additionally throughout cross-examination, Hicks described Trump as a loving husband who genuinely cared about defending his household from tales of infidelity.
“I do not assume he wished anybody in his household to be harm or embarrassed by something that occurred on the marketing campaign,” she mentioned.
“He wished them to be happy with him,” she added of “Mrs. Trump” and the remainder of Trump’s household.
Talking to reporters within the hallway after the court docket day, Trump declined to reply Enterprise Insider’s query about his response to Hicks’s testimony, saying he was sure by the gag order that New York Supreme Court docket Justice Juan Merchan imposed, stopping him from speaking about witnesses.
He pivoted to attacking the Manhattan district lawyer’s workplace, which he mentioned has “completely ruined and destroyed” the lives of “plenty of nice folks.”
“They’ve destroyed folks’s lives. They’ve gone out, employed attorneys, they have been with attorneys for years. They suck dry,” he mentioned. “And it is a disgrace. It is a disgrace what they’ve accomplished.
Hicks described the Trump marketing campaign’s frenzied reactions to the ‘Entry Hollywood’ tape
Hicks was certainly one of Trump’s most trusted advisors in his 2016 climb to the presidency. Federal prosecutors have beforehand mentioned in court docket papers from the 2019 prosecution of Michael Cohen that she might immediately tie Trump to the so-called “catch-and-kill” scheme.
She formally joined the Trump Group in October 2014 after working with the general public relations agency Hiltzik Methods. As Trump started operating for president, in 2015, she switched to a marketing campaign position and traveled with him throughout the nation, she testified.
On October 7, 2016 — lower than a month earlier than the election — Hicks obtained an electronic mail from Washington Submit reporter David Fareholdt, informing her he had obtained the video, sending a transcript of Trump’s remarks about grabbing girls “by the pussy,” and requesting a response from Trump.
She forwarded it to different marketing campaign leaders: Jason Miller, David Bossie, Kellyanne Conway, and Steve Bannon.
“Deny, deny, deny,” Hicks wrote in an electronic mail, suggesting one doable response.
Hicks then went to the twenty fifth flooring of Trump Tower, she testified, the place she mentioned Trump was making ready for a presidential debate with Miller, Conway, Bannon, Jared Kushner, and Chris Christie.
“We weren’t certain learn how to reply but,” she testified Friday. “We had been making an attempt to acquire the data and had been processing the shock internally.”
Trump responded “that that did not sound like one thing he would say,” Hicks mentioned.
Hicks mentioned she was “a bit surprised” on the time and struggled to get her bearings.
“I used to be positively involved this was going to be a large story and make the information cycle for the following couple of days, a minimum of,” she mentioned.
“There was consensus amongst us all that the tape was damaging,” she added. “This was a disaster.”
AP Photograph/Andrew Harnik
After some time, Trump offered a extra dismissive angle, Hicks mentioned.
“It was simply two guys speaking, locker room discuss. It was one thing that we should not get too involved over,” Hicks mentioned, relaying Trump’s angle. “He did not wish to offend anyone however he felt it was fairly customary for 2 guys speaking about any person.”
Hicks mentioned media protection of the “Entry Hollywood” tape was so all-consuming that nobody had paid consideration to the Class 4 hurricane that was anticipated to hit the East Coast on the time.
“It dominated media protection,” she mentioned. “I might say the 36 hours main as much as the controversy.”
Then got here the Stormy
The Trump marketing campaign realized it had a possible downside with feminine voters within the wake of the tape’s launch, Hicks mentioned.
Prosecutors steered that dynamic coloured the response to a different inquiry from a journalist — Michael Rothfeld at The Wall Road Journal — on November 4, simply 4 days earlier than the 2016 election.
The e-mail got here when Trump’s non-public jet had landed in Ohio for a “hanger rally” with the aircraft within the background. Rothfeld had requested a few secret $150,000 association between American Media Inc., the writer of the Nationwide Enquirer, and Karen McDougal. Within the settlement, AMI purchased the unique rights to McDougal’s story about an affair the previous Playboy bunny mentioned she had with Trump in 2006, when he was married to Melania Trump — however by no means revealed any articles about it.
Hicks had a telephone name with Rothfeld, the place he additionally talked about Stormy Daniels, she testified.
Hicks tried to manage the story, reaching out to Jared Kushner, who she mentioned was pleasant with the Journal’s proprietor Rupert Murdoch.
“He had an excellent relationship with Rupert Murdoch and I wished to see if we might purchase a bit further time to take care of this,” she testified.
Kushner mentioned he “wasn’t going to have the ability to attain Rupert,” she mentioned.
Hicks additionally mentioned she reached out to Michael Cohen, realizing he had a relationship with American Media Inc. proprietor David Pecker. And he or she reached out to Pecker’s workplace as nicely.
Pecker “defined that Karen McDougal was paid for journal covers and health columns, and it was all very reliable,” Hicks mentioned. “And that was what the contract was for.”
After relaying that to Trump, Hicks mentioned that Trump wished to talk to Pecker himself and “have an understanding of what was happening.” On one other telephone name, with Trump, Pecker assured him the cost to McDougal was for health columns, Hicks testified.
Trump then personally crafted a marketing campaign assertion denying the accusations from McDougal, and any data of the deal.
The revealed Journal article made point out of a doable affair and comparable take care of Stormy Daniels, however targeted on McDougal.
When the Journal revealed one other article, in 2018, targeted on the $130,000 Daniels, Hicks was at that time the White Home communications director.
Trump informed her Cohen had paid the $130,000 in hush-money “out of the kindness of his personal coronary heart” to guard him.
Hicks testified she discovered Trump’s rationalization onerous to consider.
“I might say that might be out of character for Michael,” she mentioned, to laughter within the court docket’s overflow room. “I did not know Michael to be an particularly charitable particular person. Or selfless particular person. He is the form of one who seeks credit score.”
This story has been up to date with extra particulars.
