Ex-Trump aide Hope Hicks to testify at his criminal hush money trial, reports say

Hope Hicks, a former aide to Donald Trump during his presidential administration, could be called as a witness for the prosecution at his upcoming New York hush money trial, according to reports.

Mr Trump was indicted by Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg in March last year on 34 felony charges related to the falsification of business records to conceal payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy model Karen McDougal by former Trump attorney Michael Cohen in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential election campaign, an effort to ensure their silence about extramarital affairs they allegedly had with the candidate a decade earlier.

The Republican presidential contender has denied any wrongdoing, as he has in all of the criminal investigations he faces, but will stand trial from Monday 15 April, with Judge Juan Merchan recently moving to impose a gag order on the defendant after he repeatedly lashed out about the case on social media and even attacked the justice’s own daughter, a Democratic political consultant, as part of a baseless allegation of political bias against the Merchans.

Ms Hicks served as a White House communications director between 2017 and 2018 and as counselor to the president between 2020 and 2021 but was interviewed by prosecutors in the case last year about an earlier role she played for Mr Trump: press secretary to his campaign during the 2016 election, when the alleged offence is said to have taken place.

The former aide last made headlines on the subject when she told Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee in June 2019 that she had had no knowledge of the hush money payments until the story broke in November 2016.

That claim was called into doubt by an FBI agent who had