Former confidant offers insight into Trump’s slippery problems
Hope Hicks became Trump’s businessman-turned-campaigner and finally president. In the hush money investigation, he offers insight into the tumultuous election campaign of 2016.
Hope Hicks served as press secretary for Trump’s campaign team in 2016 and held various positions in the White House after Trump took office.
Photo: Eric S. Lesser (EPA/Keystone)
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Hope Hicks, a former close associate of former US President Donald Trump, was called to the witness stand Friday in the hush money trial against him. Hicks served as his campaign team’s press secretary in 2016 and has held various positions in the White House since Trump took office. In his statement, he recounted his recollections of the political earthquake in Trump’s 2016 campaign when a 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape was made public in which the 77-year-old bragged about groping women without their consent.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office accuses Trump and his associates of participating in an illegal scheme to influence the 2016 presidential campaign.
Hicks, one of Trump’s closest confidantes, tried to prove that Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen paid $130,000 to porn star Stormy Daniels because of the leaked tape. A meeting with Trump could threaten Trump’s presidential ambitions.
Hicks: “This is a damaging development”
Hicks’ testimony, days before a debate with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, gave jurors a glimpse into the chaotic dynamics that followed the tape’s release. Hicks described sitting down with other Trump advisers after learning of the tape from a Washington Post reporter.
“I had a good feeling that this was going to be a big story and that it was going to dominate the news for the next few days,” Hicks said. “This is a damaging development.” He added: “It has set us back in a way that will be difficult to overcome.” After the “Access Hollywood” tape was released, Cohen was asked to investigate a rumor about another tape that could harm the election campaign. Hicks said he wants to stay active. But ultimately the search was fruitless.
Four days before the 2016 election, American Media Inc. bought the rights to a story about an alleged affair with Trump, according to a request from the Wall Street Journal.
Then Trump’s son-in-law intervened
Hicks recalled how he contacted Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to use his relationship with Rupert Murdoch, the owner of a media empire that includes the Wall Street Journal, to delay the publication of the article. Kushner told her Murdoch wouldn’t be able to reach her in time.
Trump showed no emotion, saying Hicks was “really nervous.” Hicks said he last spoke with Trump in the summer or fall of 2022. Although he is no longer a member of his inner circle, he speaks highly of his former employee, praising him several times and describing him as “a very good multi-tasker, very hard-working”.
Asked by attorney Matthew Colangelo who he reported to during his tenure as communications director for Trump’s real estate company, the Trump Organization, he replied: “Everybody who works there reports to Mr. Trump in one way or another. It’s a big, successful company, but in some ways it’s really small. Colangelo also asked her about the physical structure of former colleagues or offices in the Trump Organization.
Hicks described the sudden transition from his work for the Trump Organization to the campaign. When Trump said he would be her press secretary, she thought he might have been joking. Inexperienced, didn’t take it seriously at first. “Eventually I spent more time on the campaign, I became a member of the campaign committee and press secretary.”
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