Trump trial: Former top aide Hope Hicks cries as cross-examination begins

Former
top
White
House
communications
aide
Hope
Hicks
started
crying
on
the
witness
stand
Friday
as
an
attorney
for

Donald
Trump
began
cross-examining
her
testimony
in
the
ex-president’s
criminal
hush
money
trial.

Hicks
and
the
jury
briefly
left
the
courtroom
while
she
composed
herself.

The
emotional
outburst
came
at
the
start
of
the
defense
attorneys’
time
to
question
Hicks,
who
spoke
just
feet
away
from
her
former
boss
in
Manhattan
Supreme
Court.

Prosecutors
had
asked
Hicks
about
the
infamous “Access
Hollywood”
tape
that
threatened
Trump’s
2016
presidential
campaign
just
weeks
before
Election
Day.

“Everyone
was
just
absorbing
the
shock
of
it,”
Hicks
testified.

Hicks,
a
top
press
aide
for
the
campaign
at
the
time,
said
she
was “very
concerned”
when
she
received
an
email
from
The
Washington
Post
on
Oct.
7,
2016,
seeking
comment
on
the
tape
in
which
Trump
is
heard
bragging
about
sexual
misconduct.

Hicks
was
concerned “about
the
contents
of
the
email”
and
about “the
lack
of
time
to
respond,”
she
testified.

She
said
she
notified
other
campaign
leaders,
including
Jason
Miller,
David
Bosse,
Kellyanne
Conway
and
Steve
Bannon.
She
wrote
that
the
initial
strategy
should
be
that
they “need
to
hear
the
tape
to
be
sure”
and
to “deny,
deny,
deny.”

When
Trump
read
the
transcript
of
the
tape,
he
said, “That
doesn’t
sound
like
something
I
would
say,”
Hicks
testified.

In
a
brief
cross-examination,
Hicks
told
Trump’s
lawyer
that
she
was
not
involved
with
the
Trump
Organization’s
record-keeping
practices
while
she
was
at
the
White
House.

The
tape
is
a
significant
piece
of
the
case
against
Trump,
who
is
charged
with
falsifying
records
as
part
of
a
scheme
to
silence
damaging
information
about
him
ahead
of
the
2016
election.

Attorney
Keith
Davidson
testified
Tuesday
that
the
tape
spurred
a
swell
of
media
interest
in
porn
star
Stormy
Daniels’
claim
that
she
had
sex
with
Trump
while
he
was
married
years
earlier.

“I
think
before,
before
[the] ‘Access
Hollywood’
tape,
there
was
very
little
interest
from
what
I
understand,”
said
Davidson,
who
represented
Daniels
and
helped
broker
a
$130,000
hush
money
payment
to
her.

Hicks,
35,
has
deep
roots
in
Trump’s
business
and
political
lives,
and
she
was
present
for
many
of
the
scandals
that
defined
Trump’s
campaign
and
his
term
in
office.
She
worked
for
the
Trump
Organization
before
being
tapped
in
early
2015
as
Trump’s
campaign
press
secretary.
Hicks
worked
for
Trump
over
his
four
years
in
the
White
House.

Hicks,
appearing
in
Manhattan
Supreme
Court
under
subpoena,
testified
that
she
has
not
spoken
to
Trump
since
the
summer
or
fall
of
2022.

Her
testimony
follows
that
of
eight
other
witnesses
including
Davidson,
who
negotiated
six-figure
hush
money
deals
for
Daniels
and
former
Playboy
model
Karen
McDougal
ahead
of
the
2016
presidential
election.

Trump
faces
34
counts
of
falsifying
business
records
related
to
the
payment
to
Daniels.
Manhattan
District
Attorney
Alvin
Bragg
accuses
Trump
of
unlawfully
trying
to
influence
the
election
by
buying
and
suppressing
damaging
information
about
him.

On
Thursday,
Judge
Juan
Merchan
held
a
hearing
on
whether
Trump
violated
the
gag
order
again,
barring
him
from
speaking
about
jurors,
witnesses
and
others
involved
in
the
trial.

Merchan
had
already
held
Trump
in
criminal
contempt
for
violating
his
speech
restrictions
nine
times.
The
judge
fined
Trump
$9,000,
the
maximum,
and
warned
him
that
future
violations
could
land
him
in
jail.
Prosecutors
in
Thursday’s
hearing
flagged
four
more
alleged
gag
order
violations
by
Trump,
though
they
said
they
were
not
seeking
to
put
him
in
jail.

Merchan
has
yet
to
rule
on
the
additional
alleged
violations.

Over
two
days
of
testimony,
Davidson
discussed
his
work
with
the
National
Enquirer
and
Trump’s
then-lawyer
Michael
Cohen
to
craft
the
hush
money
deals,
in
the
process
shedding
light
on
how
tabloids
operate
in
their
hunt
for
lurid
stories.

David
Pecker,
the
former
CEO
of
the
Enquirer’s
publisher,
described
his
work
in
prior
trial
testimony
as “checkbook
journalism”
and
said
he
made
deals
with
the
understanding
of
trying
to
help
Trump’s
election
chances.

On
the
night
Trump
won
that
election,
Davidson
texted
the
Enquirer’s
then-editor-in-chief, “What
have
we
done?”

He
testified
Thursday
that
the
text
was “sort
of
gallows
humor.”
But
he
added
that
he
and
the
top
editor,
Dylan
Howard,
understood
at
the
time
that “our
activities
may
have
in
some
way
assisted
the
presidential
campaign
of
Donald
Trump.”

On
cross-examination,
Trump’s
attorney
stressed
that
Davidson
never
met
or
spoke
with
Trump
and
that
all
his
knowledge
about
the
then-presidential
candidate
came
secondhand.

After
Davidson
left
the
witness
stand,
prosecutors
called
Douglas
Daus,
a
forensic
analyst
for
Bragg’s
office
who
detailed
his
findings
from
Cohen’s
phone.

Jurors
heard
a
recording
of
Trump
saying
asking
Cohen, “So
what
do
we
got
to
pay
for
this
—
150?”
and
instructing
his
lawyer
to “pay
with
cash.”
Pecker’s
company
at
the
time,
American
Media,
paid
McDougal
$150,000
for
the
rights
to
her
affair
claim
as
part
of
an
alleged “catch
and
kill”
scheme
to
bury
the
story.