Takeaways from Day 11 of the Donald Trump hush money trial as Hope Hicks testifies

CNN
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Donald Trump’s former marketing campaign press secretary and White Home communications director Hope Hicks took the stand Friday, sitting toes away from her former boss as she described the fallout from the “Entry Hollywood” tape and the Trump White Home response to tales about hush cash funds.

Hicks was visibly nervous, and she or he principally prevented eye contact with Trump whereas answering questions from prosecutors for greater than two hours. When prosecutors completed with their questions and Trump’s lawyer took the rostrum, Hicks started crying and appeared to turn into overwhelmed; she completed her testimony after a short break.

By Hicks’ testimony, prosecutors confirmed jurors the transcript of the notorious “Entry Hollywood” tape that upended Trump’s marketing campaign – and, in line with the Manhattan District Legal professional’s Workplace, fueled Trump’s concern about preserving Stormy Daniels quiet within the days earlier than the November 2016 election.

A brand new witness will take the stand when court docket resumes on Monday – with Trump White Home aides, Trump Group staff, Daniels and Michael Cohen all nonetheless on deck for prosecutors to name.

Listed here are the takeaways from day 11 of the Trump hush cash trial:

Hicks describes the tape ‘disaster’ and denying Daniels’ allegations

After sitting within the witness field, Hicks seemed visibly uncomfortable and rapidly acknowledged as a lot when she started answering questions.

“I’m actually nervous,” she stated, adjusting herself and the microphone in entrance of her.

Trump usually had a scowl on his face, sometimes Hicks and incessantly passing notes together with his attorneys whereas watching the proceedings play out on the tv above him. Hicks, for her half, seemed almost all the time at assistant district lawyer Matthew Colangelo and the jury, not on the defendant’s desk.

A lot of Hicks’ testimony targeted on her position on the Trump marketing campaign in October 2016, simply earlier than Election Day. Prosecutors requested what occurred when the “Entry Hollywood” tape got here out.

“The tape was damaging. This was a disaster,” Hicks stated.

The aftermath of the tape then knowledgeable how the marketing campaign responded when the Wall Avenue Journal reported on Karen McDougal’s take care of American Media, Inc. not to discuss an alleged affair as a part of a $150,000 settlement

Within the report, which additionally talked about Daniels, Hicks, then a Trump marketing campaign spokesperson, denied that Trump had had affairs with both girl.

Hicks was requested about her conversations with Trump in addition to Michael Cohen when reporters got here to her for remark.

“What I instructed to the Wall Avenue Journal is what was instructed to me,” Hicks stated of the denial she gave in regards to the Daniels allegations.

When cross-examining Hicks, Trump lawyer Emil Bove elicited testimony that Trump was additionally involved about what his spouse would assume. Trump requested for the newspapers to not be delivered to his residence the day the story printed, Hicks testified.

“I don’t assume he wished anybody in his household to be damage or embarrassed by something that was occurring on the marketing campaign trial. He wished them to be happy with him,” Hicks stated.

Jurors noticed a full transcript of the “Entry Hollywood” faucete on Friday, together with Trump’s notorious “seize ‘em by the p*ssy” remark, in addition to different vulgar language the marketing campaign tried to dismiss as “locker room discuss.”

(They didn’t, nonetheless, hear Trump on the tape, because the decide dominated the video can be prejudicial to the jury.)

Hicks took the jury contained in the chaos inside Trump’s marketing campaign scrambling in response to the Washington Publish story on October 7, 2016. Hicks first discovered in regards to the tape when the reporter emailed her for remark for his story that day.

“I used to be involved,” Hicks testified about her considering. “I used to be involved in regards to the contents of the e-mail. I used to be involved in regards to the lack of time to reply. I used to be involved we had a transcript with out a tape. There was lots at play.”

Hicks forwarded the e-mail that included a transcript of the audio to a number of Trump marketing campaign staffers together with Kellyanne Conway.

“FLAGGING,” Hicks wrote within the electronic mail, with two notes: “1) Want to listen to the tape, to make sure. 2) Deny, deny, deny.”

“Technique quantity two was going to be a bit of tougher,” Hicks stated, chuckling on the stand.

Hicks recalled telling Trump in regards to the tape with a number of different senior staffers like Steve Bannon, Conway, Jared Kushner and Jason Miller at Trump Tower when the story first broke.

“He stated that didn’t sound like one thing he would say,” Hicks testified, noting Trump requested to see the precise tape. As soon as Trump noticed the tape, nonetheless, he was upset.

Hicks stated that “in that second” she was not involved in regards to the impression this would have on feminine voters, however stated it crossed her thoughts possibly a couple of hours later or the subsequent day.

“He didn’t need to offend anyone,” Hicks stated of Trump. “I feel he felt prefer it was fairly commonplace stuff for 2 guys chatting with one another.”

For 2 weeks, prosecutors have delved deeply into the negotiations that led to hush cash funds made to McDougal and Daniels earlier than the 2016 election.

However these funds usually are not unlawful on their very own. Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying enterprise information stemming from how he allegedly hid the way in which Cohen was reimbursed for paying $130,000 to Daniels with the intention to maintain her quiet earlier than the 2016 election.

With Hicks’ testimony, prosecutors nudged nearer to the reimbursement and the alleged costs.

Hicks was requested in regards to the response contained in the White Home when tales about Cohen’s cost to Daniels emerged in 2018 – and Cohen initially claimed he had made the cost with out Trump’s information.

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Jonathan Steinmetz

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‘Full 9-alarm fireplace’: Honig reacts to transcript of testimony from Trump hush cash trial

Hicks testified that Trump instructed her in regards to the hush cash cost after Cohen gave an announcement to The New York Instances, saying that Cohen paid the cash to Daniels of his personal volition.

Colangelo sarcastically requested Hicks if it appeared like Cohen’s character to simply pay Daniels for Trump “out of the kindness of his coronary heart.”

“I’d say that might be out of character for Michael,” Hicks responded. “I didn’t know Michael to be an particularly charitable individual or selfless individual.”

Hicks additionally stated that Trump instructed her it was higher for the story to come back out at that time, in 2018, moderately than earlier than the 2020 election. “It was Mr. Trump’s opinion that it was higher to be coping with it now and that it will have been unhealthy to have that story come out earlier than the election,” she stated.

Hicks stated she didn’t have direct information of the funds or repayments for the hush cash. However she set the scene for future witnesses to come back who will start to element that a part of the story to jurors.

Trump’s authorized workforce continued its trial-long assault on Cohen’s credibility Friday, going after the whole lot from the means he dealt with his cell telephones to how he would go “rogue” throughout 2016 marketing campaign.

Throughout cross-examination, Trump’s attorneys requested Hicks to substantiate that Cohen was not looped in on marketing campaign technique and did issues that weren’t licensed by the marketing campaign.

“He preferred to name himself a fixer, or ‘Mr. Repair it’ – and it was solely as a result of he first broke it that he was capable of then repair it,” Hicks stated, laughing.

Trump’s workforce additionally used its cross-examination of the digital forensics skilled, Douglas Daus, who examined Cohen’s cell telephones to solid doubt on the credibility of Trump’s former lawyer.

Earlier than the trial started, Trump’s workforce tried to subpoena the Manhattan district lawyer’s worker who was chargeable for the telephones in the course of the four-day lapse between when the telephones have been obtained to when it was dropped at Daus’ division.

Trump’s legal professionals indicated within the letter they wished to “problem the integrity of proof DANY (District Legal professional of New York) will search to supply from Cohen’s telephones, to be used in cross-examination of Cohen” and “relating to the bias and hostility towards President Trump to assault the dearth of integrity of DANY’s investigation.”

Daus, who launched a key September 2016 recording of Trump and Cohen that was on Cohen’s telephone, agreed that he didn’t know what Cohen had carried out together with his telephone when it had been synced with a laptop computer in 2017 and turned on and utilized in 2020.

Prosecutors sought to push again on this angle from the protection in court docket.

“Did you see any proof of tampering or manipulation on any of the information that you just pulled associated to the recording that’s in proof?” prosecutor Chris Conroy requested.

“I didn’t,” Daus testified.

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Jonathan Steinmetz

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How Michael Cohen and Trump went from associates to foes

Trump continues to rail towards the gag order issued by Choose Juan Merchan that blocks the defendant from talking out about potential witnesses and most of the people in or related to the court docket or the New York district lawyer’s workplace. (The decide himself and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg usually are not coated.)

Trump has repeatedly made the gag order sound far broader than it’s, CNN reality checker Daniel Dale wrote. As an illustration, Trump claimed at a Wednesday marketing campaign rally in Michigan that “I’m not even purported to be, I’d say, speaking to you, as a result of he gagged me” – although the gag order truly says nothing to forestall him from making a marketing campaign speech.

He’s additionally stated beforehand it will forestall him from taking the stand. However whereas Trump acknowledged to reporters Friday morning that the gag order doesn’t impression his means to testify if he selected to take action, the decide made clear there was little doubt.

“The order limiting extrajudicial statements doesn’t forestall you from testifying in any means,” Merchan stated in court docket Friday. “It doesn’t prohibit you from taking the stand and it doesn’t restrict or decrease what you may say.”

Trump has paid the $9,000 fantastic he was assessed for beforehand breaking the gag order, utilizing two cashier’s checks.

Merchan didn’t, nonetheless, rule on the extra alleged gag order violations introduced towards Trump.