Former Donald Trump advisor Hope Hicks was the first member of the former US president’s bodyguard to testify Friday at his criminal trial, in the case of hidden payments to a former porn star in 2016.
“I’m very nervous,” says — barely after taking the oath with a raised hand — the former communications advisor to Donald Trump, who was part of his inner circle during the victorious 2016 presidential campaign.
In this trial with enormous political stakes, Donald Trump is being prosecuted for 34 falsifications of accounting documents linked to the $130,000 paid just before the presidential election to Stormy Daniels, former star of pornographic films.
This sum was used to buy her silence about a fleeting sexual relationship that she claimed to have had with the real estate mogul in 2006, when he was already married to his current wife, Melania. A relationship that the Republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election denies.
Hope Hicks was part of Donald Trump’s inner circle during the campaign, speaking to him “every day.” As she talks about how she rose through the ranks, first within the Trump Organization, then within the candidate’s political team, Donald Trump listens very attentively.
She avoids meeting his eyes as much as possible. They have not had contact since “summer-autumn 2022”, she specifies.
A “crisis” after videos
For the moment, prosecutor Matthew Colangelo is mainly questioning him about an episode, which, for the prosecution, will be the prelude to the payment to Stormy Daniels.
One month before the election, the Washington Post broadcasts now famous video clips where we hear Donald Trump bragging in crude terms about having offensive behavior with women, such as “grabbing them by the pussy”.
“I was worried, very worried,” she remembers, when the prosecution produces the email sent to her, on October 7, 2016, by the journalist from Washington Post. And when she heard the excerpts for the first time, “I was a little stunned (…) there was a consensus on the fact that it was going to hurt and that we were facing a crisis,” she adds. .
For the prosecution, this episode encouraged Donald Trump to do everything to avoid a successive scandal before the November 2016 election, even if it meant buying the silence of Stormy Daniels when her case arose.
Hope Hicks, whose testimony is scheduled to continue Friday, was also clear that within the Trump Organization, “everyone (…) reported to Mr. Trump.”
Arriving at the Manhattan court, Donald Trump again deplored that this trial would keep him away from the electoral campaign. He criticized Judge Juan Merchan, whose impartiality he systematically challenges, for “seeking to present the case as as salacious as possible by authorizing testimony that has nothing to do with it.”
Shell company
On October 28, 2016, a few days before the vote, a confidentiality contract was signed with Stormy Daniels.
The $130,000 was paid by Donald Trump’s personal lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, via a shell company.
He was reimbursed in 2017 by the billionaire’s holding company, the Trump Organization, for expenses disguised as “legal costs”, hence the prosecution for falsification of accounting documents.
Michael Cohen, who says he acted at the candidate’s request and turned against his former boss, has not yet testified.
The whole point of the affair will be to determine what Donald Trump knew about these behind-the-scenes negotiations.
Three years after leaving the White House in chaos, Donald Trump enters the campaign being indicted in four cases, including one before the federal courts in Washington for accusations of illegal attempts to reverse the results of the presidential election won by Joe Biden in 2020.
But due to appeals and procedural questions, the trial in New York, of a smaller scale, could be the only one tried before the November 5 election.
If he were elected again, Donald Trump could, once inaugurated in January 2025, order the abandonment of the two federal proceedings against him, in Washington, but also in Florida, where he is being prosecuted for supposedly casual handling of classified documents. after his departure from the White House.