Topline
Former White House aide Hope Hicks is testifying in former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial Friday, after the prosecution’s first witness, National Enquirer former publisher David Pecker, portrayed her as a liaison between him and Trump as Pecker sought to quash affair allegations on Trump’s behalf.
Key Facts
Manhattan prosecutors called Hicks to the stand late Friday morning, after she previously testified before the Manhattan grand jury that voted to bring criminal charges against Trump last year, according to multiple reports.
Hicks was once a close confidant to Trump who served as his press secretary during his 2016 campaign, followed by two stints as his communications director during his presidency.
Hicks’ name has been raised in several instances throughout the trial, including by Pecker, who told jurors that he helped coordinate hush money payments to three individuals threatening to come forward with allegations of extramarital affairs against Trump.
Pecker said Hicks was “in and out” of a 2015 meeting he had with Trump and Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen at Trump Tower where Pecker promised to be the “eyes and ears” for Trump’s campaign.
Pecker also testified that Trump arranged for him to speak over the phone with Hicks and former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders in 2018, shortly after Playboy model Karen McDougal detailed her alleged affair with Trump to CNN’s Anderson Cooper.
Pecker had previously arranged a “catch and kill” agreement with McDougal to buy her rights to the story, and testified that he told Hicks and Sanders he was considering amending McDougal’s agreement to prevent her from continuing to speak about the affair, adding the two “thought that it was a good idea.”
Federal prosecutors, in their case against Cohen for his involvement in the hush money payments, alleged that Hicks was on a phone call with Trump and Cohen the day Trump was informed that adult film star Stormy Daniels was seeking to sell her story of an affair with Trump, along with a second phone call on the day after Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her silence, according to the New York Times.
Hicks, in her 2019 testimony before Congress in its probe into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, denied any knowledge of the Daniels deal at the time it was arranged and told lawmakers she was not involved in any discussions between Cohen and Trump about the payment.
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Crucial Quote
“I know Hope, I talk to Hope, and she wants nothing but the best for Donald Trump and his family,” Hogan Gidley, described by the Washington Post as a friend of Hicks’, reportedly told the outlet. Hicks has not spoken to Trump since late 2022, according to the Post, which reported that her testimony to Congress in its Jan. 6 investigation damaged Hicks’ relationship with Trump. Hicks testified to lawmakers that she told Trump that it was unlikely fraud in the 2020 election could have swayed the results of the contest and that Trump, in response, “said something along the lines of, you know, ‘Nobody will care about my legacy if I lose, so that won’t matter. The only thing that matters is winning.’” Hicks also criticized Trump in text messages on Jan. 6, according to evidence collected by the committee, writing “I’m so upset. Everything we worked for wiped away.” In another message, she said “in one day he ended every future opportunity that doesn’t include speaking engagements at the local Proud Boys chapter.”
What We Don’t Know
Whether Trump will take the stand in the case. He told reporters last month he planned to.
Key Background
Hicks was one of Trump’s most trusted advisers during her time in the White House and ran damage control for some of Trump’s biggest controversies, including former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into whether Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia. Hicks—who worked previously for Ivanka Trump’s fashion company before Trump tapped her for his presidential campaign—resigned shortly after her testimony before Congress in 2018 and returned to the White House for a brief period in 2020. Trump spoke highly of Hicks when she left the White House in 2018, lauding her for her “great work,” and describing her as “as smart and thoughtful as they come, a truly great person.”
News Peg
Prosecutors charged Trump last year with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, alleging he illegally labeled reimbursements to Cohen for the hush money payments he made to Daniels as legal expenses on business records. In addition to the payment to Daniels, National Enquirer parent company American Media, Inc., made two separate payments on Trump’s behalf to McDougal and a doorman who claimed to have knowledge of a child Trump fathered out of wedlock (allegations the National Enquirer deemed were untrue), according to prosecutors and Pecker, who said Trump never reimbursed the company for those two deals. Trump’s charges do not involve the payments to McDougal and the doorman, but prosecutors have used them to illustrate to the jury their claims that Trump executed the hush money schemes to sway the results of the 2020 presidential election. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the charges and has claimed, without evidence, they were brought on President Joe Biden’s behalf to hurt his chances of winning the election.
Tangent
Pecker, in what was widely viewed as damning and revelatory testimony, alleged that Trump was directly involved in the hush money payments, detailing multiple conversations he had with the former president about the deals and their status. During a meeting at Trump Tower, shortly after Trump was elected, Trump made a joke that Pecker “probably know more than anyone in this room’’ while introducing him to several newly appointed White House officials, including former FBI Director James Comey, Pecker testified. Pecker said Trump then thanked him for making the deals with McDougal and the doorman. Pecker also corroborated prosecutors’ claims that he made an informal agreement with Trump to serve as goalkeeper for potentially negative stories about him and publish others that reflected poorly on his rivals, detailing how he worked closely with Cohen to steer and “embellish” coverage in Trump’s favor.
Further Reading
What To Know About The Three Hush Money Scandals At The Center Of Trump’s Criminal Trial (Forbes)
