White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, one of President Trump’s closest aides and advisers, arrived to meet behind closed doors with the House Intelligence Committee, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
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J. Scott Applewhite/AP
White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, one of President Trump’s closest aides and advisers, arrived to meet behind closed doors with the House Intelligence Committee, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2018.
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
NEW YORK — Hope Hicks, a Trump-era White House adviser and communications director, is next to testify in former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial.
Hicks’ name has been brought up by several witnesses who have testified so far. She is expected to be questioned by prosecutors about her knowledge of the deal brokered between Trump and the leadership at the National Enquirer tabloid to “catch and kill” stories that could harm his 2016 presidential run.
Hicks is the ninth witness to testify in Manhattan against the former president. Trump faces 34 felony counts alleging that he falsified New York business records in order to conceal damaging information to influence the 2016 presidential election. Trump claims the trial itself is “election interference” because of how it is disrupting his 2024 bid for president because he must be present in court every day and can’t campaign when he is.
Who is Hope Hicks?
Hicks has worked for Trump since 2014 when she worked for the Trump Organization under Ivanka Trump, the former president’s daughter, and Trump himself. Hicks joined Trump’s first presidential campaign in 2015 as press secretary. After Trump was elected, she joined the administration as director of strategic communications and later as communications director. She resigned from the role in 2018.
Hicks went on to join the Fox Corp., as chief communications officer and executive vice president but came back to the White House in 2020 as an aide to Jared Kushner, Ivanka’s husband, and counselor to Trump.
How does she fit into the prosecution’s case?
Hicks is likely to be asked about what she knows about the deal brokered between Trump, his lawyer Michael Cohen, and the leadership at the National Enquirer. Prosecutors may also ask her about the urgency to keep the stories of alleged affairs between Trump and a Playboy model and an adult film star quiet.
In earlier testimony, David Pecker, former publisher of the National Enquirer, testified that Hicks was in and out of an initial meeting he had in August 2015 where the deal to aid the campaign was made. Hicks also used to work for a communication and strategy firm that worked with American Media Inc., which at the time owned the National Enquirer.
During opening statements, prosecutors noted the Access Hollywood tape was released a month before the election.
“The campaign went into immediate damage control mode,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said in opening statements, adding that Trump received word the next day that another woman was about to come forward with her own alleged sexual encounter with the GOP nominee — adult film star Stormy Daniels. Trump has also denied this encounter.
A story of infidelity 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.”
In 2019 hundreds of pages of court papers were made public and showed communication between Hicks, Cohen, Pecker, Trump and others in the fallout of the release of the tape and in the lead up to the deal with Stormy Daniels.
The payments made constitute the 34 “falsified” business records the prosecution alleged Trump made. In opening statements, prosecutors argued that Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen submitted 11 “phony invoices” paid for by checks with “false entries” signed by Trump himself.
Trump has pleaded not guilty and instead argues that all he did was pay his lawyer.
Who else has the jury heard from so far?
Jurors have heard from eight other witnesses including:
- David Pecker, former CEO of American Media Inc. He testified about making a deal with Trump and Cohen in 2015 to help Trump’s campaign by finding potentially damaging stories and helping to kill them.
- Keith Davidson, the former lawyer for McDougal and Daniels’ who negotiated their payments in exchange for the rights to their stories. He testified and verified various text messages, phone calls and conversations surrounding the deals.
- Rhona Graff, a longtime executive assistant at the Trump Organization. She testified against her former boss about how she entered McDougal’s and Daniels’ contact information into the Trump Organization’s directory. Her testimony verified Trump’s contact lists.
- Gary Farro, a former banker at First Republic Bank. He testified about opening accounts for Cohen that would eventually be used to pay Daniels. He said if he had known what the accounts would be used for they may not have ever been opened.Â
- Robert Browning, executive director for archives for C-SPAN. He verified two 2016 Trump campaign clips and one 2017 press conference clip where Trump called Cohen a talented lawyer and where Trump called allegations from women lies.
- Phillip Thompson of Esquire Deposition Solutions. He verified video and transcript of a 2022 deposition Trump gave for his civil defamation lawsuit against writer E. Jean Carroll. In a video clip played from the deposition, Trump confirms his wife is Melania Trump and his Truth Social handle, among other things.
- Doug Daus, a supervising forensics analyst in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. He testified to authenticating phone data; prosecutors played a recording of Cohen and Trump in which Cohen can be heard telling Trump, “I need to open up a company for the transfer of all of that info regarding our friend, David.”
- Georgia Longstreet, a paralegal in the Manhattan DA’s office. She testified to analyzing Trump’s social media posts.
