Apr 02, 2024 - 18:29
By huffpost.com

Hope Hicks Expected To Testify In Trump's Hush Money Trial: Reports

Hope Hicks, the former White House communications director who was once one of former President Donald Trump’s closest advisers, is expected to testify against him in his upcoming New York criminal trial, several outlets have reported.

Hicks will reportedly speak about the hush money payments made to porn actor Stormy Daniels in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential election, when the Trump campaign was scrambling to mitigate the damage of an “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump was heard making sexualized and belittling comments about women.

Hicks was Trump’s campaign press secretary at the time. She went on to join his administration, leaving in 2018 only to return in 2020.

In March last year, she met for several hours with Manhattan prosecutors investigating Trump.

Federal search warrants released in 2019 had shown how Hicks was part of conversations between Trump and Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, in the wake of the tape’s release.

The New York trial, set to begin on April 15, centers on accusations that Trump falsified business records to quash further scandals and help his campaign.

Two women, Daniels and model Karen McDougal, said they had affairs with Trump in the mid-2000s. Both received hush money payments in exchange for keeping quiet.

The former president denies the affairs and any wrongdoing.

Other former allies may be called to testify in the trial. Cohen is expected to take the stand to discuss how he helped distribute the payments. Daniels may also provide testimony, as might David Pecker, a former National Enquirer publisher and a longtime friend of Trump, according to The New York Times.