Hope Hicks, a former longtime adviser to Donald Trump, took the witness stand Friday in his felony trial, the place prosecutors are anticipated to query her about her data of hush money funds made throughout the 2016 presidential marketing campaign.Hicks, who served as White House communications director, is the primary shut Trump adviser to testify in the case, which accuses the Republican former president of a scheme to illegally affect the 2016 election by silencing girls who claimed to have sexual encounters with him.Hicks served as Trump’s 2016 marketing campaign press secretary and was one in every of a small variety of early marketing campaign staffers who joined his administration.Prosecutors say Hicks spoke with Trump by cellphone throughout a frenzied effort to maintain allegations of his marital infidelity out of the press after the notorious “Access Hollywood” tape leaked weeks earlier than the 2016 election. In the tape, from 2005, Trump boasted about grabbing girls with out their permission.Trump has denied the allegations of extramarital sexual encounters. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee for election this November denies any wrongdoing in the case.Former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, the prosecution’s star witness, has but to take the stand in the hush money trial. But jurors are already listening to Cohen’s phrases as prosecutors work to instantly tie Trump to funds to silence girls with damaging claims about him earlier than the 2016 election.The second week of testimony in the case will wrap up Friday after jurors heard a doubtlessly essential piece of proof: a recording of Trump and Cohen, then his lawyer, discussing a plan to repay an ex-Playboy mannequin who claimed to have an affair with Trump. The former president denies the affair.Prosecutors have spent the week utilizing detailed testimony about conferences, e mail exchanges, enterprise transactions and financial institution accounts to construct on the muse of their case accusing Trump of a scheme to illegally affect the election. They are setting the stage for pivotal testimony from Cohen, who paid porn actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 for her silence earlier than he went to jail for the hush money scheme.Trump’s protection has labored to poke holes in the credibility of prosecutors’ witnesses, and present that Trump was making an attempt to guard his fame and household — not his marketing campaign — by conserving the ladies quiet. The protection additionally prompt whereas questioning an lawyer who represented two girls in hush money negotiations that Trump was, in reality, the sufferer of extortion.The recording performed Thursday was secretly made by Cohen shortly earlier than the 2016 election. Cohen is heard telling Trump a few plan to buy the rights to former Playboy mannequin Karen McDougal’s story from the National Enquirer in order that it could by no means come out. The tabloid had beforehand purchased McDougal’s story to bury it on Trump’s behalf.In the recording, Cohen revealed that he had spoken to then-Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg about “methods to set the entire thing up with funding.”Trump will be heard responding: “What will we received to pay for this? One-fifty?”Trump prompt the cost be made with money, prompting Cohen to object by repeatedly saying “no.” Trump then says “verify” earlier than the recording cuts off.Prosecutors performed the recording after calling to the stand Douglas Daus, a forensic analyst from the Manhattan district lawyer’s workplace who carried out analyses on iPhones Cohen turned over to authorities throughout the investigation. Daus will return to the stand Friday morning, and it is not clear who will comply with him.Jurors additionally heard greater than six hours of essential testimony this week from Keith Davidson, a lawyer who represented McDougal and Daniels in their negotiations with Cohen and the National Enquirer — the tabloid that purchased and buried detrimental tales in an business observe generally known as “catch and kill.” Davidson on Thursday described being shocked that his hidden-hand efforts might need contributed to Trump profitable the 2016 election.“What have we achieved?” Davidson texted the then-editor of the National Enquirer on election evening when it grew to become clear that Trump was going to win. “Oh my god,” the tabloid editor responded.“There was an understanding that our efforts might have in a way — strike that — our actions might have in a way assisted the presidential marketing campaign of Donald Trump,” Davidson advised jurors.Trump’s legal professionals sought earlier in the day to blunt the potential hurt of Davidson’s testimony by getting him to acknowledge that he by no means had any interactions with Trump — solely Cohen. In reality, Davidson mentioned, he had by no means been in the identical room as Trump till his testimony.“I had no private interactions with Donald Trump. It both got here from my purchasers, Mr. Cohen or another supply, however definitely not him,” Davidson mentioned.Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying inner Trump Organization enterprise data. The prices stem from issues like invoices and checks that have been deemed authorized bills in Trump Organization data when prosecutors say they have been actually reimbursements to Cohen for the $130,000 hush money cost to Daniels
Hope Hicks, a former longtime adviser to Donald Trump, took the witness stand Friday in his felony trial, the place prosecutors are anticipated to query her about her data of hush money funds made throughout the 2016 presidential marketing campaign.
Hicks, who served as White House communications director, is the primary shut Trump adviser to testify in the case, which accuses the Republican former president of a scheme to illegally affect the 2016 election by silencing girls who claimed to have sexual encounters with him.
Hicks served as Trump’s 2016 marketing campaign press secretary and was one in every of a small variety of early marketing campaign staffers who joined his administration.
Prosecutors say Hicks spoke with Trump by cellphone throughout a frenzied effort to maintain allegations of his marital infidelity out of the press after the notorious “Access Hollywood” tape leaked weeks earlier than the 2016 election. In the tape, from 2005, Trump boasted about grabbing girls with out their permission.
Trump has denied the allegations of extramarital sexual encounters. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee for election this November denies any wrongdoing in the case.
Former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, the prosecution’s star witness, has but to take the stand in the hush money trial. But jurors are already listening to Cohen’s phrases as prosecutors work to instantly tie Trump to funds to silence girls with damaging claims about him earlier than the 2016 election.
The second week of testimony in the case will wrap up Friday after jurors heard a doubtlessly essential piece of proof: a recording of Trump and Cohen, then his lawyer, discussing a plan to repay an ex-Playboy mannequin who claimed to have an affair with Trump. The former president denies the affair.
Prosecutors have spent the week utilizing detailed testimony about conferences, e mail exchanges, enterprise transactions and financial institution accounts to construct on the muse of their case accusing Trump of a scheme to illegally affect the election. They are setting the stage for pivotal testimony from Cohen, who paid porn actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 for her silence earlier than he went to jail for the hush money scheme.
Trump’s protection has labored to poke holes in the credibility of prosecutors’ witnesses, and present that Trump was making an attempt to guard his fame and household — not his marketing campaign — by conserving the ladies quiet. The protection additionally prompt whereas questioning an lawyer who represented two girls in hush money negotiations that Trump was, in reality, the sufferer of extortion.
The recording performed Thursday was secretly made by Cohen shortly earlier than the 2016 election. Cohen is heard telling Trump a few plan to buy the rights to former Playboy mannequin Karen McDougal’s story from the National Enquirer in order that it could by no means come out. The tabloid had beforehand purchased McDougal’s story to bury it on Trump’s behalf.
In the recording, Cohen revealed that he had spoken to then-Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg about “methods to set the entire thing up with funding.”
Trump will be heard responding: “What will we received to pay for this? One-fifty?”
Trump prompt the cost be made with money, prompting Cohen to object by repeatedly saying “no.” Trump then says “verify” earlier than the recording cuts off.
Prosecutors performed the recording after calling to the stand Douglas Daus, a forensic analyst from the Manhattan district lawyer’s workplace who carried out analyses on iPhones Cohen turned over to authorities throughout the investigation. Daus will return to the stand Friday morning, and it is not clear who will comply with him.
Jurors additionally heard greater than six hours of essential testimony this week from Keith Davidson, a lawyer who represented McDougal and Daniels in their negotiations with Cohen and the National Enquirer — the tabloid that purchased and buried detrimental tales in an business observe generally known as “catch and kill.” Davidson on Thursday described being shocked that his hidden-hand efforts might need contributed to Trump profitable the 2016 election.
“What have we achieved?” Davidson texted the then-editor of the National Enquirer on election evening when it grew to become clear that Trump was going to win. “Oh my god,” the tabloid editor responded.
“There was an understanding that our efforts might have in a way — strike that — our actions might have in a way assisted the presidential marketing campaign of Donald Trump,” Davidson advised jurors.
Trump’s legal professionals sought earlier in the day to blunt the potential hurt of Davidson’s testimony by getting him to acknowledge that he by no means had any interactions with Trump — solely Cohen. In reality, Davidson mentioned, he had by no means been in the identical room as Trump till his testimony.
“I had no private interactions with Donald Trump. It both got here from my purchasers, Mr. Cohen or another supply, however definitely not him,” Davidson mentioned.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying inner Trump Organization enterprise data. The prices stem from issues like invoices and checks that have been deemed authorized bills in Trump Organization data when prosecutors say they have been actually reimbursements to Cohen for the $130,000 hush money cost to Daniels
