Closing summary
Hope Hicks, Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign press secretary, took the stand as a key prosecution witness on Friday in testimony that described Trump campaign staffers’ panic when a recording emerged in which Trump bragged about groping women and the former president’s complete control over the campaign.
Here’s a recap of what happened today:
Hicks placed Trump squarely at the center of his campaign media strategy, telling jurors “we were all just following his lead”. Trump “deserves the credit for the different messages that the campaign focused on in terms of the agenda that he put forth,” she told the court.
Her testimony marked a turning point for prosecutors, as she is the first Trump staffer with intimate knowledge of Trump’s campaign to testify about his alleged misconduct.
Hicks said she was “very concerned” about the contents of an email from a Washington Post reporter about the Access Hollywood tape. “It was a damaging development,” Hicks said. “[The] consensus among us that this was damaging – this was a crisis.”
Hicks was also asked Friday about a media inquiry from the Wall Street Journal, which was running a story in early November 2016 about AMI’s purchase of Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougals’ stories – and failure to run them. Hicks said that she thought she’d spoken with Trump after getting this inquiry.
Hicks said Trump told her to deny that he had a sexual relationship with Daniels. “He wanted to make sure that there was a denial of any kind of relationship,” said Hicks.
Hicks said Trump was worried about the WSJ story and its impact, including about Melania Trump catching word of the coverage. “He wanted me to make sure that the newspapers were [not] delivered to their residence that morning,” Hicks told jurors.
Hicks said Trump told her that Michael Cohen had paid off Daniels to “protect him from a false allegation” out of the “kindness of his own heart”. But, she said, “I didn’t know Michael to be an especially charitable person or selfless person.”
Hicks broke into tears Friday while testifying. The former Trump press secretary cut a skittish figure in the judge’s courtroom, and was clearly uncomfortable and had a quavering voice as she introduced herself to jurors.
Trump’s lawyer, Todd Blanche, argued that prosecutors should not be able to bring up the fact that Judge Juan Merchan held him in contempt.
The judge sided with Blanche, saying that if jurors heard the same court – the same judge – had done so, “I think it would just be so prejudicial, so I agree.”
Court officially done now. Donald Trump is standing, now he’s leaving the courtroom. His eyes lingered on parts of the gallery, but I don’t think you can definitively say that he stared at any one person.
