Hope Hicks, a one-time Trump administration official, told a Manhattan court on Friday that former President Donald Trump’s ex-attorney Michael Cohen attempted to “insert himself” into the campaign and confirmed a defense lawyer’s comment that he “went rogue” at certain moments.
Under cross-examination, Ms. Hicks testified that Mr. Cohen, a central figure in the case, attempted to get involved in the campaign but “wasn’t supposed to be on the campaign in any official capacity” and wasn’t involved in the campaign’s strategy. Mr. Cohen “liked to call himself a fixer, or Mr. Fix It,” Ms. Hicks said.
“And it was only because he first broke it that he was able to then fix it,” she said after being questioned by Trump attorney Emil Bove. When asked about whether Mr. Cohen “went rogue,” Ms. Hicks confirmed that he did, taking actions that the Trump campaign did not authorize.
The Epoch Times contacted Mr. Cohen’s lawyer for comment but did not receive a reply by press time.
At one point during questioning from a Trump defense attorney about when she started working for the Trump Organization, Ms. Hicks broke down in tears. The judge called a short break before she resumed her testimony.
Ms. Hicks worked for the then-Republican 2016 presidential candidate’s campaign before becoming former President Trump’s aide. She was called to testify on Friday as part of the so-called “hush-money” trial involving the former president.
Prosecutors have claimed that the former president sought to provide the payments to adult film performer Stormy Daniels and former model Karen McDougal to prevent the two from going public about alleged affairs in a bid to boost his 2016 campaign. President Trump has denied Ms. Daniels’s and Ms. McDougal’s allegations and pleaded not guilty.
During her testimony, Ms. Hicks did not disclose during whether Mr. Cohen “went rogue” when he made payments to Ms. Daniels
President Trump is facing 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a payment to Ms. Daniels. Both Ms. Daniels and Mr. Cohen are expected to testify in the trial.
“The defendant in this case is the former president, Donald J. Trump. So what does he do? He starts to attack. And despite the gag orders that have been put on by the judges, he nevertheless continues to do what he wants,” he also said adding: “He legitimately just posted something calling me a sleazebag. And of course, he attacked Stormy Daniels as well. It’s called witness intimidation and obstruction of justice.”
Lawyers for the former president have made claims that Mr. Cohen had acted on his own behalf to make the payments and have tried to distance President Trump from him. Prosecutors have said otherwise, claiming that a plan to make payments to the women was hatched by President Trump, Mr. Cohen, and former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker during the campaign.
Other Testimony
Ms. Hicks also testified that the former president was primarily concerned about how allegations against him about extramarital affairs would impact his family. She spoke with Trump on Nov. 5, 2016, the day after a Wall Street Journal article about the allegations was published.She testified that President Trump “was concerned about the story. He was concerned about how it would be viewed by his wife, and he wanted me to make sure the newspapers weren’t delivered to their residence that morning.”
Asked if President Trump was also worried about the story’s effect on the campaign, Ms. Hicks claimed that everything they spoke about during that time was viewed through the lens of the campaign, with President Trump often asking her, “How is it playing?” as a way of gauging how his appearances, speeches, and policies were landing with voters.
She then claimed that she was almost certain the former president used the phrase to express concern about how the Wall Street Journal story would affect his election chances and the final days of his campaign.
Earlier in the day, the former adviser spoke about President Trump in complimentary terms, saying that he is a “very good multi-tasker, a very hard worker.”
Asked who she reported to while working as communications director for the Trump Organization, Ms. Hicks said, “Everybody that works there in some sense reports to Mr. Trump. It’s a big successful company but it’s really run like a small family business in some ways.”
Gag Order Issues
On Friday, Judge Juan Merchan told President Trump and his attorneys that he is able to testify in the case, coming a day after the former president said that the judge’s gag order prevents him from doing so. The judge previously fined him $9,000 for what he said were online posts that violated the gag order.Judge Merchan appeared to respond to the former president’s comment and suggested that there may have been a “misunderstanding” of his order, adding that it doesn’t prohibit the former president from testifying on his own behalf.
“I want to stress, Mr. Trump, that you have an absolute right to testify,” Judge Merchan said Friday morning in Manhattan before members of the jury entered the courtroom. “It is a fundamental right that cannot be infringed upon.”
“The order restricting extrajudicial statements does not prevent you from testifying in any way,” the judge added to the former president. “Please let your attorney know if you have any lingering doubts,” he added.
Attorneys for President Trump have argued that the gag order, issued earlier this year and later expanded to include members of Judge Merchan’s family, is unconstitutional and violates his First Amendment rights. They have said that as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, he should be allowed to speak freely, while the former president has decried the case and trial as a sham designed to keep him off the campaign trial.
“This Corrupt and HIGHLY Conflicted New York Judge, Juan Merchan, is doing everything in his power to make this trial as salacious as possible, even though these things have NOTHING to do with this FAKE case,” the former president wrote on Truth Social Friday, again saying the case is a form of election interference. “He gives us nothing, gives the [sic] everything to the Crooked D.A., Alvin Bragg.”
