Former President Donald Trump’s “hush money” trial continues in New York on May 3.
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Trump Criticizes Bragg After Leaving Courtroom
President Trump left the courtroom and when asked about Ms. Hicks’s testimony told reporters he was not allowed to comment under the gag order.
He criticized the prosecutors instead, including Mr. Bragg, for not prosecuting violent crime.
“What they’ve done to people in my company—they’ve been after us for years … and they’ve destroyed people’s lives,” he said. “They’ve been with lawyers for years and been sucked dry. And it’s a shame, a shame what they’ve done to this country, and it’s a shame what they’ve done to great people who’ve been absolutely ruined and destroyed, not only here but all over.”
“I was very interested in what took place today,” he said.
Judge Omits Trump Contempt Ruling From Evidence
Testimony ended and attorneys held a sidebar with the judge.
Prosecutors sought permission to elicit testimony about President Trump being held in contempt by the court should he decide to testify, but the judge sided with the defense and said it would be “extremely prejudicial” to admit that finding.
Hicks: Trump ‘Really Values’ Melania’s Opinion
“He really values, President Trump really values Mrs. Trump’s opinion,” Ms. Hicks said.
“And she doesn’t weigh in all the time but when she does it’s really meaningful to him, and he really respects what she has to say, and I think he was concerned about what the perception of that would be, and this was weighing on him,” Ms. Hicks said.
“I think he didn’t want his family to be hurt or embarrassed by anything that was happening on the campaign.”
Trump Hands-On With Media: Hicks
Ms. Hicks confirmed that President Trump gave a lot of feedback regarding the media.
“He does, he likes to call and praise people about stories, he does a really nice job of maintaining relationships and always being willing to engage with the media even if he doesn’t always think the treatment he gets is fair. He speaks with publishers, authors, journalists,” she said.
Mr. Bove said the media events they’ve focused on were the Access Hollywood tape and the Wall Street Journal articles about Ms. Clifford and Ms. McDougal. Ms. Hicks confirmed that his level of involvement was normal for their operation.
“And you had a sense that this was causing him personal stress,” Mr. Bove said.
“Yes, he was worried about how this would be viewed at home,” Ms. Hicks said.
Hicks Says Cohen Inserted Himself in Campaign
After a break, Mr. Bove continued questioning Ms. Hicks.
She confirmed that there was a legal department at The Trump Organization, with Jason Greenblatt, and testified that Mr. Cohen was not part of the campaign.
“He would try to insert himself at certain moments,” she said.
Ms. Hicks confirmed that Mr. Cohen frustrated the campaign staff with his actions.
“I used to say that he liked to call himself a fixer, or Mr. Fix It, and it was only because he first broke it that he was able to fix it,” she said.
Hicks Breaks Down in Tears on Witness Stand
Cross-examination began and Mr. Bove asked Ms. Hicks about her start with the Trump Organization in 2014. He asked her to confirm the focus of her role when she began.
Ms. Hicks broke down in tears, audibly crying.
Justice Merchan asked if she wanted a break, and Ms. Hicks said “yes, please.”
Prosecutors Ask Hicks About Trump Involvement in ‘Stormy’ Payment
Ms. Hicks said later the Wall Street Journal published another story about Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, received a $130,000 payment. Another member of her team had received an email from the reporter.
“I don’t remember speaking to Michael right then, but sometime in the aftermath of the story I spoke to him,” she said. “I believe that I spoke to Mr. Cohen after I spoke to Mr. Trump.”
Mr. Colangelo asked whether Ms. Hicks knew if Mr. Trump communicated with Mr. Cohen directly about these reports.
“Sometime in the middle of February Mr. Trump told me about it, I believe it was the morning after Michael had given a statement to the New York Times saying he had in fact made this payment without Mr. Trump’s knowledge,” Ms. Hicks said. “So Mr. Trump was saying that he spoke to Michael and Michael had paid this woman to protect him from a false allegation and that Michael felt like it was his job to protect him and that’s what he was doing, and he did it out of the kindness of his own heart, he never told anyone about it.”
Mr. Colangelo honed in on the idea that Mr. Cohen made a $130,000 payment “out of the kindness of his heart.”
“I’d say it would be out of character for Michael,” Ms. Hicks said. “I didn’t know Michael to be an especially charitable person, or selfless person.”
Ms. Hicks described Mr. Cohen as “the kind of person who seeks credit.”
She said President Trump “thought it was a generous thing to do, and he was appreciative of the loyalty.”
“I think Mr. Trump’s opinion was that it was better to be dealing with that now and not have had the story come out before the election,” she said.
Hicks Didn’t Talk to Pecker After McDougal Interview
Madeleine Westerhout, another former aide to President Trump, texted Ms. Hicks on March 20, 2018: “Hey – the president wants to know if you call David Pecker again?”
Mr. Colangelo noted this was the same date Ms. McDougal sued AMI, and that Ms. McDougal did an interview with Anderson Cooper on CNN shortly after.
Ms. Hicks said she had no recollection of speaking to Mr. Pecker after the interview.
“I don’t believe that happened,” she said. “To my knowledge, I did not speak to Mr. Pecker.”
“I did speak to Mr. Trump. I was the communications director and this was a major interview, so yes, we spoke about the interview and how it was playing out,” she said.
Hicks Says WSJ Story ‘Didn’t Get a Lot of Traction’
Ms. Hicks said Mr. Cohen messaged her after the story was published, and several of his texts were shown in the courtroom.
Mr. Cohen said, “lots of innuendo with little fact” and “poorly written and I don’t see it getting much play.”
Ms. Hicks wrote, “I agree with most of that, but it will get play bc the media is the worst but he should just ignore and blow past it.”
They continued to text, counting how many stories were being published about the McDougal contract. Mr. Cohen at one point texted Ms. Hicks that he had a “statement by Stormy denying everything.” The two “agreed” that the story was not getting significant attention.
“I just mean that the election was taking place in three days and we were doing, five, six rallies a day,” Ms. Hicks testified. “There was a lot going on and it was not like the story was consuming the news cycle and I needed to be aware of every detail.”
Mr. Colangelo asked what the response to the WSJ article was.
“It was all sort of muted, all relative to the other stories that came out during the campaign. It just didn’t get a lot of traction,” Ms. Hicks said.
“He was concerned about the story, he was concerned about how it would be viewed by his wife, and he wanted me to make sure that the newspapers weren’t delivered to their residence that morning,” Ms. Hicks said.
Ms. Hicks confirmed that she later worked in the White House and described the space.
Hicks Discusses Statement to WSJ
After a lunch break, prosecuting attorney Matthew Colangelo continued questioning Ms. Hicks.
She confirmed she heard Mr. Trump speaking to Mr. Cohen after the story was published.
“We were in a car on our way to a rally,” Ms. Hicks said. “I presumably heard Mr. Trump, there was nothing memorable, I don’t really remember anything that was said.”
She believed they started the day in Maine and Ohio was one of the stops that day.
Ms. Hicks confirmed she gave a statement to the Wall Street Journal, which reported that she stated “We have no knowledge of any of this” when presented with information about the agreement.
“Did Mr. Trump tell you to say we have no knowledge of any of this?” Mr. Colangelo asked.
Ms. Hicks said she did not remember him saying that verbatim, but her recollection was “this is what was told to me.”
“I don’t have a strong memory, verbatim, of him saying this,” she said.
Hicks: Cohen Said McDougal Contact ‘All Very Legitimate’
Ms. Hicks said she also talked to Mr. Cohen about the news of the story about Ms. McDougal.
“I believe I called Michael Cohen, just because I knew he had a relationship with Mr. Pecker,” Ms. Hicks said.
“[I] just asked what was going on, why was I receiving this email, and he explained that Karen McDougal was paid for magazine covers and fitness columns and that it was all very legitimate and that was what the contract was for,” Ms. Hicks said.
She said she also called Mr. Pecker.
“I think Michael sort of feigned he didn’t really know what I was talking about and I should call David to get more information,” Ms. Hicks said. “When Mr. Trump came off the plane, I shared it with him as well.”
Ms. Hicks said she and Mr. Cohen had drafted a statement that Mr. Trump did not want to use.
The court took a break.
Hicks Asked Kushner to Help ‘Buy a Little Time’ on McDougal Story
Ms. Hicks said she had heard of Karen McDougal once before the Nov. 4, 2016, Wall Street Journal article was published.
She said in November 2015 she was on one of Mr. Trump’s planes and “some of the security guys at the plane were telling a story about a celebrity gold tournament and some of the participants in the tournament, and she was there.”
“I think we had just landed in Ohio and Mr. Trump was going to get off the plane and do a rally on the tarmac of the airport,” she said. “He was going to go and start the rally and I received the email.”
“I think it outlined there was a woman named Karen McDougal who had a story that was purchased by the National Enquirer but was never published, and he was asking if we or the Trump campaign knew anything about that,” Ms. Hicks said.
She said it was a small plane, which meant most people had deplaned to get to the rally, and “I was sort of dealing with this by myself on the plane while the rally took place.”
“I believe I forwarded the email to Jared Kushner, one to loop him in, and two because he had a very good relationship with Rupert Murdoch, and I was going to see if he could help us buy a little time to deal with this,” Ms. Hicks said.
Hicks Called Cohen About Rumors of a Second Tape
Ms. Hicks was asked whether she spoke with Mr. Cohen when the tape was released, and she said she spoke with him on Oct. 8 about rumors of another tape.
“I didn’t want anyone to be blindsided, have an understanding of what material was out there we needed to prepare for,” Ms. Hicks said. “There was no such tape regardless, but he sort of faced that down with me.”
She confirmed Mr. Trump was concerned the tape could hurt his standing with voters.
Ms. Hicks said there was one staff member authorized to post things on Mr. Trump’s Twitter account at the time, with Mr. Trump’s approval.
Attorneys Play Trump Apology Statement
Ms. Hicks said she didn’t have a strong recollection of the conversation after. “But I know Mr. Trump felt like this wasn’t good, but it was also like two guys talking privately, it was locker room talk. Certainly it wasn’t something to get upset over, I felt like he thought this was pretty standard stuff for two guys chatting with each other,” she said.
Ms. Hicks said Mr. Trump always liked to weigh in with responses so the campaign issued a short statement that the group had worked on together.
Attorneys played the clip for the courtroom.
Ms. Hicks said the tape dominated media coverage until the end of the debate. She said she received the email at 1:30 p.m. on a Friday when they were anticipating a category 4 hurricane making landfall.
“And I don’t think anybody remembers that hurricane making landfall, it was all Trump all the time,” Ms. Hicks said.
Ms. Hicks confirmed that several prominent Republicans distanced themselves from Mr. Trump after the tape.
Hicks Says Tape Was ‘Crisis’
Ms. Hicks said she didn’t remember if they saw the tape before it was published but they “obviously” saw it “in a matter of minutes” once it was.
“Was Mr. Trump upset?” prosecutors asked.
“Yes, yes he was,” Ms. Hicks said.
“What was your first reaction when you heard the tape?” attorneys asked.
“Just a little stunned,” she said. “Just, yeah, it’s hard to describe, but it was definitely concerning and I had a good sense that this was going to be a massive story and make the news cycle for the next several days at least.”
“Why was it a damaging development?” prosecutors asked.
“It just didn’t feel like the kind of story, obviously it wasn’t helpful, but it just had a lot of layers to it, it complicated where we were trying to go with the campaign and this was just pulling us backward,” she said.
She confirmed that there was “consensus” in that group that the tape was damaging.
“This was a crisis,” she said.
Hicks Describes Trump Response to Tape
Ms. Hicks said she went to the 25th floor of Trump Tower where Mr. Miller, Ms. Conway, Mr. Bannon, and possibly Jared Kushner and Steven Miller were also present doing prep for a debate.
“I motioned for Jason to come out and speak with me, to try not to disrupt the debate prep, and the sight of the six of us gathered out there was a sign that something was afoot and Mr. Trump asked us to come into the conference room at some point and share what we were discussing,” Ms. Hicks said.
“I shared the email with Mr. Trump, sort of verbally, and we were at the time, based on the conversation outside the conference room, trying to get a copy of the audio of the tape, to assess the situation further,” she said.
“We weren’t sure how to respond, we were just trying to gather information and everyone felt the shock of it,” she said. “He said that that didn’t sound like something he would say.”
Hicks Discusses Access Hollywood Tape
Ms. Hicks said that when Mr. Trump became the GOP nominee, they were traveling every day.
“So we were based here in New York and we would usually leave Trump Tower about 7 in the morning, we would go to LaGuardia, and we would sometimes make two, three, four stops in a day, and events like going to visit a small business,” she said. “He was doing rallies all day.”
Unless they were heading to the West Coast, most days they would return to headquarters at Trump Tower, Ms. Hicks said.
Ms. Hicks said the campaign found out about the Access Hollywood tape about a month before the election, while sitting at her desk in Trump Tower.
She received an email from David Fahrenthold at the Washington Post the day the story about the tape was published.
“I was concerned. I was very concerned,” she said. “I was concerned about the contents of the email, I was concerned that we had a transcript and not a tape, there was a lot going on.”
Ms. Hicks forwarded the email to Jason Miller, David Bossie, Kellyanne Conway, and Steve Bannon, then went to a different floor to find them to talk about it.
Hicks Describes Pecker-Trump Phone Call
Ms. Hicks said she knew David Pecker, publisher of American Media Inc., from before she worked with the Trumps, through her previous job.
“I reconnected with him at some point because he was a friend of Mr. Trump’s,” she said. “I don’t recall specifically, but at some point I realized that [they were friends].”
Ms. Hicks said she did not remember being in a meeting with Mr. Pecker but that it was possible. She recalled a phone call.
“Shortly after National Enquirer published a piece about Ben Carson, and I overheard a conversation between Mr. Trump and Mr. Pecker who was on speakerphone, and Mr. Trump was just congratulating him for good reporting,” Ms. Hicks said.
Ms. Hicks said Mr. Trump congratulated him for a great investigative piece, “sometimes he would say things like ‘this is Pulitzer worthy.’”
Hicks Handled Media Requests During Campaign
She described the period leading up to Mr. Trump declaring his candidacy.
“Some time around that first trip, Mr. Trump, I think he might have been joking but he said I was going to be campaign secretary,” she said. “I didn’t take it seriously but eventually I spent so much time working on the campaign and I became campaign secretary.”
She said it involved facilitating a lot of media interviews, press releases, and “just being a liaison for a lot of different things and helping facilitate anything related to external communications for the campaign.”
There were “a lot of incoming questions about Mr. Trump, his candidacy, where we were going to be and when,” she said. “It was just a constant flow of incoming questions.”
The communications team was small at the beginning.
“It was just me and Mr. Trump, who was better than anyone at communications and branding,” Ms. Hicks said. “Later, in the general election, we did have a larger staff.”
Ms. Hicks said she reported to Mr. Trump, who “was very involved” and responsible for the campaign messaging.
She said the core staff that traveled was “limited,” a “small group of staffers” that included someone who did social media and someone who did speechwriting.
Ms. Hicks said she knew David Pecker, publisher of American Media Inc., from before she worked with the Trumps, through her previous job.
“I reconnected with him at some point because he was a friend of Mr. Trump’s,” she said. “I don’t recall specifically, but at some point I realized that [they were friends].”
Hicks Describes Key Trump Personnel
Ms. Hicks said Keith Schiller was Mr. Trump’s bodyguard, and attended events where he served as security liason.
She said Rhona Graff was Mr. Trump’s executive assistant and “crucial to how everything ran on the 26th floor.”
Ms. Hicks said Ms. Graff “had a lot of institutional knowledge about different projects and Mr. Trump’s business relationships, his networks, his like and dislikes in terms of scheduling, and she would help facilitate media engagements for him.” She said the relationship between Ms. Graff and Mr. Trump was one of mutual respect.
Ms. Hicks said Allen Weisselberg was CFO during her time at The Trump Organization.
“Anything that had to do with finances, Allen was involved in,” Ms. Hicks said. “During his time we were starting to work on the campaign, he was helping in doing things like the personal finance disclosure that was required.”
Ms. Hicks said she met Mr. Cohen before she started working with The Trump Organization, because he was involved in some licensing deals with the Miss Universe pageant.
Hope Hicks on the Witness Stand
Hope Hicks, who served as director of strategic communications and communications director in the White House during the Trump administration before taking an advisor post, is now testifying.
Ms. Hicks had done publicity work for Ivanka Trump’s fashion brand and was later offered a position with The Trump Organization full-time in 2014. There she handled communications and marketing for the real estate, hospitality, and entertainment businesses. She saw Mr. Trump about once a week, but more after he declared his candidacy in 2015 and she transitioned into more political work.
“He’s just the kind of person who’s a multitasker and a very hard worker, he’s doing a number of things at once,” Ms. Hicks said. “If it’s a political meeting, he’ll want to provide them poll numbers. If it’s a real estate meeting, he’ll want to provide them with figures about the value of the property.”
Ms. Hicks said around January 2015 she was communicating him him more frequently, and by June it was daily, by phone if not in person.
“Everybody that works there in some sense reports to Mr. Trump,” she said. “It’s very big and successful company but it’s run like a small family business in certain ways.”
Trump Social Media Posts Shown in Court
After a break, attorneys conferred with the judge on admissible evidence.
Ms. Longstreet returned to the witness stand and read aloud several social media posts by then-candidate Trump disputing claims were brought up, including the apology after the Access Hollywood tape was published.
Ms. Longstreet confirmed she would not have independent knowledge of why the social media posts she reviewed were made.
DA Paralegal Testifies
Georgia Longstreet, a paralegal for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, took the witness stand.
Ms. Longstreet has worked on the Trump case for one and a half years. She says she reviews Instagram, Twitter, and Truth Social every day, multiple times a day, and has reviewed between 5,000 and 10,000 social media posts for the case.
The court took a break.
Questions About Reliability of Evidence on Cohen’s Phone
“You’ve been performing forensic analysis in 2023 about phone records from 2016, and there are intervening events that raise questions about reliability of the evidence?” Mr. Bove asked.
“Yes,” Mr. Daus answered.
Mr. Bove outlined a timeline wherein the FBI had possession of Mr. Cohen’s phone in 2018, and the district attorney’s office came to have it in 2020.
“And we don’t know what was being done with it, we would have to take Michael Cohen’s word for it,” Mr. Bove said.
Mr. Daus confirmed he saw no evidence of tampering, but also that he saw gaps in handling that created risks for tampering.
“The conversation is ongoing, and the audio file stops?” Mr. Bove asked.
“Yes,” Mr. Daus said.
Witness Continues Testimony About Evidence Processing
Douglas Daus returned to the witness stand. Mr. Daus works in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office processing digital evidence.
Defense attorney Emil Bove is questioning Mr. Daus about chain of custody and procedures, asking if there are gaps in which evidence might become tampered with.
“I want to talk about the data you extracted from CP1 [phone]. You testified yesterday that you did not retain copies from the phone the FBI had seized,” Mr. Bove said. “So in the absence of that other copy, you could not compare hashes to see if the data had been manipulated.”
Mr. Daus confirmed Mr. Cohen was cooperating with the district attorney’s investigation and had backed up his phone on his computer, but said he did not extract Mr. Cohen’s laptop.
Mr. Bove also asked about an incoming phone call to the device on Sept. 6, 2016, which Mr. Daus said there was no data for.
Defense Argues Evidence Today ‘Unfair,’ Prejudiced
Attorney Todd Blanche told the judge the defense objected to a number of exhibits prosecutors wanted to show today, including social media posts, an article that ran in the Washington Post, and the transcript of the infamous Access Hollywood tape.
Mr. Blanche argued that the tape was originally excluded because “the danger of unfair prejudice is extreme” and only correspondence surrounding the tape’s impact was meant to be admitted, to show intent and motive.
The judge ultimately allowed the transcript if it was presented without a photo of President Trump.
“You can introduce a transcript, I don’t have a problem with that. I don’t want those words to be associated with Mr. Trump’s face or his voice, it’s just very powerful evidence, it’s damning evidence, and I don’t think it’s necessary,” Justice Merchan said.
Judge Also Clarifies Trump Can Testify
Justice Merchan started the day by telling attorneys he wanted to clarify that his gag order would not prevent President Trump from testifying, as President Trump told reporters yesterday.
“There may be a misunderstanding,” he said. “I want to express to Mr. Trump that you have an absolute right to testify at trial.”
“It is a fundamental right that cannot be infringed upon,” he said, adding that the gag order only applies to statements made outside the courtroom.
Trump Clarifies He May Testify
President Trump clarified remarks from yesterday and said “the gag order’s not going to stop me from testifying.
“The gag order stops me from talking when people say things about me,” he said. “I’m not allowed to respond.”
“We’re filing, I think today, a constitutional motion to get this out,” he said.
He did not answer when asked “will you still testify?”
Trump Says DA Should Be Prosecuting Violent Crime
President Trump mentioned the Manhattan District Attorney outside the courtroom for the first time in days. The district attorney is not covered by the gag order.
“Yesterday Alvin Bragg sat here all afternoon long, and in the meantime you have violence going on, he’s the worst DA in the country,” President Trump said. “They must’ve had 20 different DAs, assistant DAs, in that courtroom over the past couple of days over nothing, nothing.”
President Trump claimed the judge was trying to make the case “as salacious” as it could be by “allowing things in that have nothing to do with this case.”
“But nothing for us,” he said.
“New York City has become violent with cashless bail. I’m the only one that has to put up bail,” he said.
Trump Says Reports on Trial Have Been ‘Scathing’
President Trump commented on the new jobs report and “really, really bad” economy, blaming the leadership of the country, and told reporters again he’d prefer to be out campaigning.
He said a month ago, his campaign had planned for him to be in Georgia today.
“Right now we’re in a courthouse instead of … I’d say ten states we’d like to be,” he said.
He also said the trial was going well.
“We’re winning this trial,” he said, adding that he thought if they had a “fair judge” the case would not have gone to trial at all.
President Trump says he reads legal analysts’ takes on the trial and the ones he read today have been “scathing.”
What to Know
The trial of former President Donald Trump continues, as the Manhattan District Attorney has charged him with 34 counts of falsifying business records, allegedly to cover up a scheme to influence the 2016 election.
At the center of the case is a $130,000 payment made by former attorney Michael Cohen to Stephanie Clifford, also known as Stormy Daniels, an adult actress who alleged she had a sexual encounter with Donald Trump.
Keith Davidson, an attorney who represented Ms. Clifford for that deal, testified this week, pushing back on prosecutors’ claims that the payment was “hush money,” Mr. Davidson rejected the term and said it was “consideration” paid as part of a legal civil settlement.
During his days-long testimony, Mr. Davidson described Mr. Cohen as a “pants on fire” type of person who created “drama” and was “very aggressive.”
He also testified that after President Trump took office, Mr. Cohen called him, seeming depressed during an hour-long call that left Mr. Davidson with the impression that Mr. Cohen was suicidal because he had believed he would get a job in Washington, which now seemed unlikely.
This call is contrary to repeated claims Mr. Cohen has made, including on the witness stand in another civil case against President Trump, that he never wanted a post in the Trump administration.
Defense attorneys are expected to characterize Mr. Cohen’s claims as part of ongoing “revenge” efforts. Mr. Cohen has, since breaking publicly with President Trump in 2018, become one of his most vocal critics.
From The Epoch Times
