Hope Hicks Takes the Stand: 'I'm Really Nervous'

Former aide, called to testify in hush-money case, breaks into tears at one point
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted May 3, 2024 11:45 AM CDT
Updated May 3, 2024 5:35 PM CDT
A 'Really Nervous' Hope Hicks Takes Stand in Trump Trial
Hope Hicks, former White House communications director, in a file photo.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

One of the bigger names on the witness list in Donald Trump's hush-money trial took the stand on Friday—former White House communications director and press secretary Hope Hicks.

  • "I'm really nervous," Hicks said as her testimony began, per CNN. It lasted nearly three hours.
  • Hicks told the jury she spoke with Trump pretty much daily after joining his campaign in 2015, though she said she had not spoken with him since the summer or fall of 2022. As the New York Times notes, that's about the time her texts about the unfolding attack on the Capitol were made public.
  • She described Trump as "very involved" in public campaign responses and called him a "very good multitasker," per the AP.
  • The tape: Asked about the infamous Access Hollywood tape, Hicks says she was "a little stunned" upon hearing Trump's remarks about grabbing women's genitals. She called it a "crisis" for the campaign and was asked to read aloud her own email in the aftermath in which she advised staffers to "deny, deny, deny." She told jurors it was a "reflex" reaction. The tape connects to the trial because prosecutors say it led Trump to pay off Stormy Daniels rather than allow her to air her allegations of an affair, per the Times.
  • Melania: Hicks similarly recounted the campaign's denials—issued through her—to the Wall Street Journal over a story alleging a hush-money payment in regard to former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Hicks said Trump was worried how wife Melania would receive the story about an alleged affair, and asked Hicks to make sure no newspapers were delivered to their residence that morning.
  • Tears: Just as cross-examination began in the afternoon by Trump attorney Emil Bove, Hicks broke into tears and grabbed a tissue, reports the Hill. The judge excused her and the jury for a short break. "Sorry about that," she said to Bove upon returning. "No, it's OK," he responded.
  • On Cohen: Bove is trying to build the case that "fixer" Michael Cohen negotiated the hush-money payments on his own, and Hicks may have helped on that front. "He liked to call himself a fixer, or Mr. Fix-it, and it was only because he first broke it," she said.

  • A profile: The Washington Post has a primer on Hicks, one that describes the 35-year-old as "the Zelig of Trumpworld—a former teenage model and political novice leery of the spotlight who found herself inadvertently launched into the upper echelons of American politics." The story notes that she was present in Trump's inner circle for all of the political controversies that have dogged him.
  • Still friends: "She was there for everything, so they are going to ask her questions," friend Hogan Gidley, who was Trump's principal deputy press secretary, tells the Post. He added: "I know Hope, I talk to Hope, and she wants nothing but the best for Donald Trump and his family."
  • Defense victory: After the jury was dismissed, Trump won one battle, per the Hill. Judge Juan Merchan denied prosecutors' request to cross-examine Trump about what they consider his violations of the judge's gag order, saying it would be "so prejudicial" for the jury to know he'd found Trump in criminal contempt. "It would be very difficult to look past that," Merchan said.
  • Next: The trial resumes Monday. Major possible witnesses not yet called include Cohen and Daniels.
(More Trump hush-money trial stories.)

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