Another star witness in Donald Trump’s first criminal trial has opened up about the former president’s involvement in his staff communications, adding yet another hole to Trump’s legal defense.
Hope Hicks, a former Trump Organization employee who became Trump’s White House communications director, said Friday that she spoke with Trump every day while serving as press secretary for his presidential campaign. She said he was “very involved” and that the communications arm of Trump’s 2016 candidacy was “still following his lead.”
“He knew what he wanted to say and how we wanted to say it,” Hicks told the court. “We have always followed his example.”
Hicks went on to say that she met David Pecker, the former editor of the National investigator and former CEO of its parent company, American Media Inc., on several occasions, and knew Pecker as a “friend of Mr. Trump.” She noted that she had been present during Trump’s phone calls with Pecker, including those regarding some of the Applicantincluding hit stories about one of Trump’s Republican opponents in the 2016 race, Dr. Ben Carson.
But she also said she didn’t remember attending any meetings in Trump Tower between Pecker and her former boss.
“Have you ever been in and out of (Trump’s) office when Mr. Pecker was meeting with Mr. Trump at Trump Tower?” » asked prosecutor Matthew Colangelo.
“I have no memory of it, but it’s certainly possible,” she said.
Yet Hicks’ testimony about his boss’s behavior flies in the face of the portrait of Trump that his legal defense has attempted to paint — claiming that Trump was completely removed from any knowledge of the secret payments to his alleged mistress, the actress Stormy Daniels porn, or any other. try to bury his story.
Hicks notably clarified that although she is testifying at the trial under subpoena, she is paying for her own legal representation and has not spoken to Trump in nearly two years.
Trump is accused of using his old fixer Michael Cohen sweep away a connection with Daniels under the rug on the eve of the 2016 presidential election. The Republican presidential candidate faces 34 criminal charges in this case for allegedly falsifying business records with the intent to commit a predicate crime. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
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