Hope Hicks, a former Trump-era White House adviser and communications director, is the next to testify in former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial.
Hicks’ name has been raised by several witnesses who have testified so far. She is expected to be asked by prosecutors about her knowledge of a deal struck between Trump and the leadership of the National Enquirer tabloid to “catch and kill” stories that could harm his 2016 presidential campaign.
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Hicks is the ninth witness to testify against the former president in Manhattan. Trump faces 34 felony charges alleging he falsified New York business records to hide damaging information to influence the 2016 presidential election. Trump claims the lawsuit itself is “election interference” because it is disrupting his 2024 presidential campaign, as he must appear in court every day and cannot campaign when he is not present
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Who is Hope Hicks?
Hicks has been working for Trump since 2014, when she worked for the Trump Organization under the former president’s daughter Ivanka Trump and Trump himself. Hicks joined Trump’s first presidential campaign as press secretary in 2015. After Trump was elected, she joined the administration as director of strategic communications and later director of communications. She resigned from this role in 2018.
Hicks joined Fox Corp. as chief communications officer and executive vice president, but returned to the White House in 2020 as an aide to Ivanka’s husband and Trump adviser Jared Kushner.
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How does she fit into the prosecution’s case?
Hicks is likely to be asked what she knows about the deal struck between Trump, his lawyer Michael Cohen and the leadership of the National Enquirer. Prosecutors may also ask her about the rush to keep quiet stories about alleged affairs between Trump and a Playboy model and an adult film star.
In earlier testimony, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker testified that Hicks was in and out of an initial meeting in August 2015 where the deal to help the campaign was struck. Hicks also worked for a communications and strategy firm that worked with American Media Inc., which then owned the National Enquirer.
During opening statements, prosecutors noted that the Access Hollywood tape was released a month before the election.
“The campaign immediately went into damage control mode,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said in opening statements. He said Trump received word the next day that another woman was about to come forward about his alleged sexual encounter with the GOP candidate — adult film star Stormy Daniels. Trump has denied this encounter as well.
An infidelity story with a porn star would have been damaging to the campaign, Colangelo said, and Trump “wanted to prevent American voters from learning about that information before Election Day.”
Hundreds of pages of court papers were made public in 2019 and show communications between Hicks, Cohen, Pecker, Trump and others in the lead-up to the tape’s release and the deal with Stormy Daniels.
The payments made are among 34 “falsified” business records that prosecutors accused Trump of. In opening statements, prosecutors argued that Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen submitted 11 “false invoices” that were paid by checks containing “false entries” signed by Trump himself. Trump pleaded innocent and instead argued that he had only paid his lawyer.
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