NEW YORK — Gasps were heard in the overflow courtroom when Hope Hicks was called as a witness on Friday in former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan, an audible sign of the anticipation as Trump’s former press secretary and White House communications director took the stand. Her testimony ended the trial’s third week in dramatic fashion.
In nearly three hours on the stand, Hicks described the impact on Trump’s campaign of the so-called “Access Hollywood” tape, in which Trump bragged about grabbing women’s genitals. As soon as the tape was disclosed in October 2016, Hicks said, she knew it would be “a massive story.”
Taking the stand under a subpoena, Hicks said she was nervous, and at one point, early in the cross-examination, she broke down in tears.
The Manhattan district attorney has charged Trump, 77, with falsifying 34 business records to hide a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, a porn actor who says she and Trump had a tryst in 2006 while he was married. Trump, the first U.S. president to face criminal prosecution, has denied the charges and says he did not have sex with Daniels. If convicted, he could face probation or prison time.
Here are five takeaways from Trump’s 11th day, and third week, on trial:
A scandalous recording resurfaces.
Hicks, now a communications consultant, testified to her fast rise in the Trump family orbit, going from working for his daughter Ivanka to press secretary for Trump’s campaign. It was in that role that, in October 2016, she had to confront what she called the “intense” fallout from the revelation of the “Access Hollywood” tape.
The judge in the case, Juan Merchan, has said the tape itself cannot be played, but jurors saw a transcript of it Friday in an email sent to Hicks by a reporter from The Washington Post.
“When you’re a star, they let you do it,” Trump said in the tape about groping women. “You can do anything.”
“Deny, deny, deny.”
The need for damage control did not abate, however, as Hicks was confronted with the story of Karen McDougal and a mention of Daniels in an article by The Wall Street Journal just days before the 2016 election. The story reported that McDougal, a former Playboy model, had been paid $150,000 in August 2016 by the parent company of the National Enquirer, which then suppressed her story of an affair with Trump, which he has denied.
Hicks recalled consulting with Michael Cohen, Trump’s then-lawyer and fixer, who eventually paid Daniels to keep quiet. Cohen denied the stories, drafting a proposed response calling them “completely untrue,” and Hicks told the Journal the same thing.
Indeed, even as the “Access Hollywood” tape was coming out, Hicks said one strategy — which she documented in an email to other senior Trump aides — was simple: “Deny, deny, deny.”
Election pressures were huge.
Earlier this week, Keith Davidson, a Los Angeles lawyer, testified about deals he negotiated for Daniels and McDougal during the closing months of the 2016 campaign, when Trump was battling Hillary Clinton.
The election was a constant topic, with Davidson pressuring Cohen for payment as Election Day loomed and Daniels threatening to blow up the deal as days ticked down.
On Friday, prosecutors introduced online postings and a video statement by Trump in which he acknowledged saying “foolish things” on the “Access Hollywood” tape, but also attacking Clinton. The jury also saw posts made in the weeks before the election in which Trump blasted women who had accused him of misconduct, calling their accounts phony.
“Nobody has more respect for women than me,” he wrote.
Trump’s voice was heard in court, and outside, too.
Prosecutors on Tuesday played video clips of Trump’s denials of sexual assault while on the campaign trail, as well as part of a deposition Trump gave in a lawsuit in which he was found liable for sexual abuse.
And on Wednesday, Trump blasted the criminal case while campaigning, calling Merchan “crooked” and “conflicted.”
Back in court Thursday, jurors heard a conversation Cohen had recorded with Trump about how to reimburse the publisher of the Enquirer for the purchase of McDougal’s story.
Trump, fined once, faces another gag-order ruling.
After hearing prosecutors’ arguments last week over violations of a gag order barring attacks on trial participants, Merchan on Tuesday fined Trump $9,000 and threatened him with jail if they continue.
On Thursday, prosecutors presented four more incidents and called Trump’s statements “corrosive.” Trump’s legal team argued that he was merely responding to political attacks.
Merchan has not yet ruled, but a decision could come soon, perhaps next week. The trial continues Monday.