The fourth week of Donald Trump’s criminal trial in New York begins Monday as prosecutors seek to build on the emotional testimony of a former aide to the ex-president.
Hope Hicks, Trump’s top communications aide from 2015 to early 2018, testified Friday about how she and others in Trump’s orbit handled revelations about “hush money” payments made to two women before the elections.
Hicks choked up on the stand after acknowledging that Trump seemed concerned about how allegations related to adult film star Stormy Daniels might have affected his electability.
She recalled her reaction to news of a payment to Daniels in 2018, when he was president.
“He wanted to know how it was going, and just my thoughts and my opinion on this story versus a different story before the election if Mr. Cohen hadn’t made this payment,” she recalled. “I think Mr. Trump’s view was that it was better to deal with it now, and it would have been bad for this story to have been made public before the election.”
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records related to reimbursements from his former lawyer Michael Cohen, who paid Daniels $130,000 in exchange for her silence about allegations of a sexual relationship with Trump. He has pleaded not guilty and denies having sex with Daniels.
Prosecutors have not said who they will call to the stand next. Court resumes at 9:30 a.m.
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