2nd UPDATE 1:56 PM: Not for the primary time, Donald Trump made somebody cry right now.
Hope Hicks wept on the stand right now within the hush cash trial of her former boss moments after a prosecutor had completed questioning her about her dealings with Trump and Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen. Completed speaking to Assistant D.A. Matthew Coloangela on the stand in Manhattan, the previous White Home Communications Director had simply begun taking questions from a protection lawyer when she turned her head away from the courtroom gallery and, crying audibly, reached for a tissue to dab away tears.
“Ms. Hicks, do you want a break?” Choose Juan Merchan requested of the a lot anticipated witness. “Sure,” she replied in a shaky voice.
The courtroom recessed for about 10 minutes, and Ms. Hicks returned to the stand. “Sorry about that,” she stated.
Earlier, Hicks mentioned the Trump marketing campaign’s resolution to disclaim a Wall Road Journal story about American Media’s hush cash cope with former Playboy mannequin Karen McDougal. The story was revealed 4 days earlier than the 2016 election and it additionally talked about porn actor Stormy Daniels.
Hicks, the Trump marketing campaign’s press secretary, testified that her directions to inform the Journal that Trump denied any sexual involvement with both girl got here straight from Trump himself. “I do know very clearly that he said the denials,” she stated.
When Cohen later texted her “I’ve an announcement from Storm denying all the things,” Hicks testified, “I didn’t know what he was speaking about and I didn’t wish to know.”
In February, after the election, The New York Occasions reported that Cohen admitted to paying $130,000 to Daniels for her silence — the cost that triggered the Manhattan District Lawyer’s investigation of Trump and led to his indictment on fees of falsifying enterprise data to hide a reimbursement of Cohen.
Hicks testified that Trump advised her, based mostly on his personal dialog concerning the Occasions article with Cohen, “He did it out of the kindness of his personal coronary heart and he by no means advised anyone about it.”
Assistant District Lawyer Matthew Colangelo requested Hicks if that sounded just like the Michael Cohen she knew — a query that drew an objection from the protection, which Choose Merchan overruled.
“I’d say that will be out of character for Michael,” Hicks replied. “I didn’t know Michael to be an particularly charitable particular person or selfless particular person.”
In a delicate cross-examination by Trump lawyer Emil Bove after her transient break to compose herself, Hicks described Cohen as a nuisance — somebody regularly inserting himself right into a presidential marketing campaign during which he had no official function.
“He preferred to name himself a fixer or Mr. Repair-it, and it was solely as a result of he first broke it,” she stated with amusing.
However she did ask Cohen for his assist after the Entry Hollywood tape surfaced of Trump making crude remarks about girls: Hicks known as him to look into one other rumor “that there could also be one other tape that will be problematic for the marketing campaign,” she testified.
“There was no such tape, regardless, however he kind of chased that down for me,” Hicks stated.
Hicks stated Trump’s concern about rumors of infidelity had been for his household. “I don’t assume he needed anybody in his household to be harm or embarrassed by something that was taking place within the marketing campaign,” she testified. “He needed them to happy with him.”
After jurors had been excused, Choose Merchan heard attorneys on whether or not to exclude his contempt findings in opposition to Trump from being introduced up if Trump decides to testify — a sign that Trump might take the stand in his personal protection.
Merchan shortly dominated for the protection, agreeing with Trump lawyer Todd Blanche that letting jurors hear about Merchan’s contempt ruling can be prejudicial and “very very tough” for a jury “to look previous.”
Merchan nonetheless has but to resolve whether or not to seek out Trump in contempt once more for extra public statements aimed toward witnesses and jurors that prosecutors say violate the decide’s gag order. On his means out of courtroom, Trump was requested to touch upon Hicks’ testimony and demurred, citing the gag order, per a pool report. He did enable that he was “very concerned with what befell right now” in courtroom.
The trial resumes on Monday.
1st UPDATE, 11:30 AM: Former White Home Communications Director Hope Hicks advised a Manhattan jury right now that Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential marketing campaign needed Rupert Murdoch‘s assist in delaying an explosive Wall Road Journal story concerning the candidate’s alleged affair with the 1998 Playmate of the yr
Having been out of the general public eye since Trump left workplace in 2021, Hicks was testifying right now within the former president’s 11-day outdated hush cash trial, together with her former boss sitting only a few toes away.
One matter that took up a whole lot of time in Hicks testimony was her repeated shocks of studying that the Celeb Apprentice host had made crude remarks directed in direction of girl on the notorious Entry Hollywood tape, adopted by scandalous claims about Trump linked to former Playboy mannequin Karen McDougal, and a porn actor, Stormy Daniels, all within the ultimate weeks of Trump’s 2016 presidential marketing campaign.
“I had a great sense that this was going to be a large story and dominate the information cycle for the subsequent a number of days not less than,” Hicks, who was Trump’s presidential marketing campaign spokesperson in 2016, stated on the stand, describing her response to a Washington Submit reporter emailing her on October 7, 2016 for remark concerning the Entry Hollywood tape.
She was sitting in her 14th ground workplace at Trump Tower in Manhattan when the e-mail arrived. Trump was in a convention room on the twenty fifth ground getting ready for his second presidential debate with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. When she introduced the information to the marketing campaign officers upstairs, “I believe there was a consensus amongst us all that the tape was damaging and this was a disaster,” Hicks testified.
Once they introduced the matter to Trump, she stated his response was that “it was virtually like two guys speaking privately. It was locker room discuss, It wasn’t something to get upset over.”
The marketing campaign issued a written assertion during which Trump known as it “locker room banter” and added, “Invoice Clinton has stated for worse to me on the golf course.” They adopted up with an extended video assertion, posted to Twitter, during which Trump stated, “I used to be flawed. And I apologize.”that
Hicks proved appropriate concerning the story dominating the information cycle. Questioned by Assistant District Lawyer Matthew Colangelo, she recalled on the stand that the tape was one of many first questions he confronted that weekend at Sunday’s presidential debate with ex-Secretary of State Clinton.
The subsequent reporter inquiry got here on November 4, 4 days earlier than the election, from a Wall Road Journal reporter asking for touch upon a hush-money contract between McDougal and American Media, proprietor of the Nationwide Enquirer tabloid. Hicks stated the e-mail arrived as Trump’s marketing campaign aircraft was about to land in Ohio for a barnstorming “hangar rally” on the airport. It was the primary time she’d heard of McDougal, and he or she stated that in a follow-up name the reporter additionally talked about Stormy Daniels.
Hicks stated she forwarded the reporter’s electronic mail to Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and prime political advisor, after which known as him, figuring out that he had “a great relationship” with Murdoch, the proprietor of the Journal. “I hoped he might purchase a bit of further time to cope with this,” Hicks stated, implying that he would possibly intervene to delay publication. Kushner replied that “he wasn’t going prime have the ability to attain Rupert and we must always work on responding and cope with it,” Hicks stated.
Hicks stated her subsequent calls had been to Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, and after that, American Media CEO David Pecker. Hicks stated she didn’t actually keep in mind the dialog with Cohen, “however there’s a purpose I known as David subsequent,” she stated, explaining that Cohen “kind of feigned — he didn’t know what I used to be speaking about.”
Pecker advised her that the cost to McDougal was for “journal covers and health columns and it was all very professional, and that’s what the contract was for.”
In a later contact with Cohen to run an announcement by him, Cohen really helpful that Trump say, “These accusations are utterly unfaithful.”
That was the gist of Trump’s replies, in statements and on Twitter, and at a rally in Greensboro, N.C., to claims of sexual infidelity with McDougal and Daniels. Jurors noticed a C-SPAN clip of Trump on the Greensboro rally telling the viewers, “These are all horrible lies, all fabrications.”
Hicks testified that she believed she additionally mentioned Daniels with Cohen, who unbeknownst to Hicks had already paid Daniels $130,000 to maintain quiet. “He needed to know the context” of the reporter’s data, “and he needed to guarantee that there was a denial of any sort of relationship,” Hicks testified.
The Journal revealed its first story — targeted on McDougal, however mentioning Daniels — that day. Requested by prosecutor Colangelo how she interpreted the article, Hicks stated, “I felt that the purpose of the story was that the Nationwide Enquirer paid a girl for her story and by no means revealed it. It wasn’t essentially about accusations of sure habits.”
In about 90 minutes of testimony earlier than a courtroom lunch break, Hicks struck a pleasant tone in direction of Trump as he watched her on the stand. “He’s an excellent multitasker and a really onerous employee,” She stated of the boss she labored for on Trump firm issues after which on the marketing campaign earlier than turning into White Home communications director. She stated of the Trump Group, “It’s a really massive and profitable firm but it surely was run like a small household enterprise in a number of methods.”
She stated that Trump “is best than anyone at communications and branding,” and that as a presidential candidate, he was “very concerned” in issues of press and messaging.
“I’d say that Mr. Trump was accountable” for the marketing campaign’s messaging, Hicks stated. “He knew what he needed to say and the way he needed to say it. We had been all simply following his lead.”
Hicks will resume testifying after lunch.
PREVIOUSLY, 9:01 AM: “I’m actually nervous,” Hope Hicks advised a packed Manhattan courtroom as the previous White Home Communications Director started her a lot anticipated testimony in Donald Trump’s hush cash trial.
As soon as one of many former Celeb Apprentice host’s closest confidantes, Hicks’ testimony has been extremely anticipated on this case of the $130,000 paid to Stormy Daniels to maintain the story of the porn star’s alleged affair with Trump out of the information within the weeks main as much as the 2016 election. For lack of a greater expression, Hicks is assumed to know the place are all of the our bodies are buried in Trumpland.
This morning Hicks, who appeared in late 2022 by way of video deposition earlier than Home Choose Committee listening to to Examine the January sixth Assault on the US Capitol, confirmed she has not spoken to her former boss since “the summer season, fall of 2022.” Because the ex-White Home and marketing campaign aide started answering questions from Assistant District Lawyer Matthew Coloangela, it was noticeably to these within the courtroom how Hicks primarily prevented eye contact with Trump, who’s seated close by.
Nevertheless, Trump being Trump, the previous POTUS appeared proper at Hicks when she complimented his expertise in messaging within the early days of what many noticed as an extended shot and even joke marketing campaign in 2015/2016. “We had been all simply following his lead,” Hicks stated.
After a lower than dramatic previous few days in Trump’s trial, cable information lit up Friday as information of Hicks’ look within the cameraless courtroom turned identified. CNN and MSNBC had been full-on with hosts and pundits in studio and texts from reporters within the courtroom actually being learn out on-air. Even Fox Information, which has been giving the previous and current GOP candidate’s authorized proceedings lower than wall-to-wall protection the previous 11 days, went dwell and powerful on Hicks’ presence.
Within the Anderson Cooper-attended courtroom, after some fast background data and particulars on the initially ramshackle 2016 marketing campaign, Hicks is now being requested about Trump’s bodyguard Keith Schiller and Trump’s government assistant, Rhona Graff., at present jailed Trump Group CFO Allen Weisselberg and former fixer Michael Cohen.
Earlier within the day, attorneys in Trump’s newest New York discovered themselves cooling their heels and ready to seek out out if the 2024 Republican presidential nominee shall be hit with one other contempt discovering and extra penalties by Choose Juan Merchan.
This morning, nevertheless, Choose Merchan started by assuring Trump {that a} gag order in opposition to him wouldn’t apply if he decides to take the stand. “I wish to stress, Mr. Trump, that you’ve got an absolute proper to testify,” the decide stated, calling it “a constitutional proper that can’t be denied.”
Trump, within the hallway exterior the courtroom on Thursday, stated, “I’m not allowed to testify. I’m underneath a gag order, I suppose. I can’t testify.” He reversed himself this morning on his means into the courtroom. When a reporter requested, “Does the gag order cease you from testifying?” Trump responded, “No.”
Seated between his attorneys this morning Trump confronted Merchan because the decide clarified to him that the gag order “solely applies to extrajudicial statements — that’s, statements made exterior of courtroom.”
Because the trial nears the tip of week three, Merchan has already fined Trump $9,000 and compelled him to tug down a number of on-line posts. The decide’s gag order on Trump prohibits public statements about doubtless witnesses, jurors and different trial contributors. In a trial subplot that’s taking place out of view of jurors, prosecutors on Thursday argued for brand new sanctions based mostly on one other batch of Trump statements —”persistent and escalating rhetoric” designed to intimidate witnesses, Assistant Manhattan District Lawyer Chris Conroy stated.
In the meantime, a knowledge analyst for the Manhattan District Lawyer’s workplace returned to the stand this morning to be cross-examined by Trump lawyer Emil Bove.
The analyst, Douglas Daus, testified on Thursday that he extracted audio from a cellphone owned by lawyer Michael Cohen of a dialog with Cohen’s boss, Trump, a couple of hush-money cost to former Playboy mannequin Karen McDougal.
Prosecutors performed that decision for jurors on Thursday and used the cellphone information to put out Cohen’s in depth contacts within the Trump universe. The contacts included a White Home spokesperson, Hope Hicks, and a Trump Group accountant, Allen Weisselberg, who’s in jail on Rikers Island after pleading responsible to perjury in a civil case in opposition to Trump for inflating his internet value.
Bove right now continued questioning Daus about who else had Cohen’s telephones earlier than the DA’s workplace obtained them, and what information may need been altered or deleted by then. Bove additionally sought to drift doubts concerning the veracity of the audio during which Cohen and Trump talk about paying McDougal, noting the audio cuts out.
“And in some ways we’re simply going to should take Michael Cohen’s phrase for it?” Bove requested. Daus stated sure.
Daus, on redirect, advised prosecutor Conroy that he noticed no proof of tampering within the information extracted from Cohen’s telephones. However he stated sure when Bove. adopted up by asking him, “Did you see gaps within the dealing with of this information that created dangers for such tampering?”
It was a line of questioning that urged Cohen, when his flip to testify comes, will face aggressive and skeptical questioning by Trump attorneys.
Jurors on Thursday watched Bove grill Beverly Hills lawyer Keith Davidson — who represented McDougal and porn actor Stormy Daniels — for his earlier dealings on behalf of purchasers with superstar gossip to promote. Davidson labored with Cohen and a tabloid editor, Dylan Howard of the Nationwide Enquirer, to rearrange funds in 2016 to McDougal and Daniels in order that neither would air claims of extramarital intercourse with the GOP’s White Home nominee.
Jurors additionally heard Cohen and Davidson, in calls secretly recorded by Cohen, speaking concerning the cost to Daniels. Prosecutors and protection attorneys each performed audio to bolster their dueling claims: that Trump directed Cohen to make the Daniels cost; or that Cohen acted on his personal to realize leverage over his boss.
Davidson’s purchasers included individuals with dust to promote about actors Charlie Sheen and Lindsey Lohan {and professional} wrestler Hulk Hogan. However as jurors noticed, none of these earlier dealings got here with the political or historic stakes of the claims being made by McDougal and Daniels.
“What have we completed?” David texted Howard as Election Night time outcomes confirmed Trump profitable.
“Oh my god,” Howard texted again in an alternate proven in screenshots.
By then, Davidson had brokered a $130,000 hush cash cost for Daniels from Cohen, with Howard serving to the negotiations keep on observe. Howard’s boss, American Media CEO David Pecker, wasn’t buying the Daniels story as a way to bury it as he had completed with McDougal’s for $150,000. However Pecker, who testified final week, was a good friend of Trump’s with an curiosity in retaining him scandal-free in his march to the White Home.
Davidson advised a prosecutor on Thursday that his textual content to Howard was “gallows humor” and an acknowledgement that “our actions might have in a roundabout way assisted the presidential marketing campaign of Donald Trump.”
Davidson completed his two days of testimony with a grueling cross-examination. Ex-prosecutor Bove all however known as Davidson an extortionist, positioning Trump as one in all Davidson’s marks as a substitute of a politician breaking enterprise and election legal guidelines to hide a sexual scandal and canopy up an unlawful reimbursement to Cohen.
It was the sort of aggressive pushback that Trump himself may need applauded, based mostly on his reported unhappiness with lead protection lawyer Todd Blanche. On the contempt listening to on Thursday morning that jurors didn’t see, Trump appeared incredulously at Blanche when the lawyer stated “I agree” with Choose Merchan that “no person compelled your shopper” to speak to reporters within the hallway about Cohen.
“No one’s forcing him,” Blanche stated. “However he’s operating for president: He has to have the ability to communicate.”
