Placeholder for Hope Hicks afternoon testimony
Trump looks very unhappy as he departs the courtroom, and his lawyer Todd Blanche is not smiling.
The lawyers are not quite done yet, even though the jury is. Prosecutors have asked whether they can question Trump, if he testifies, about his nine violations of his gag order. Todd Blanche, a defense lawyer, is asking the judge to bar any such question.
Blanche slips and calls Trump “Mr. Trump,” before correcting himself and using Trump's preferred label: “President Trump.”
But Merchan says he agrees with the defense, saying it would be too prejudicial for a jury to hear that the judge presiding over the trial at hand had found against the defendant. That’s a win for Blanche. Merchan’s ruling doubles as an acknowledgment of his own sway over the jury.
As much as the defense lawyers — and Trump — complain about Merchan, he has been bending over backward to try to seem fair to Trump.
Matthew Colangelo, the prosecutor, responds, saying that the findings from the judge that Trump violated his gag order are directly relevant to Trump’s credibility if he takes the stand. He contradicts Blanche's stance, saying that there is case law supporting his argument. Previously, we’ve seen Justice Merchan respond positively to the presentation of case law — older cases in which judges discuss the matters in question —and express frustration with the defense when they don’t cite any.
Emil Bove’s last question to Hope Hicks was a pointed one, calling attention to the way that the actual charges of falsifying business records have not been discussed in two full weeks of testimony. “While you were focused on your job at the White House,” he asked, “you didn’t have anything to do with the business records of the Trump Organization 200 plus miles away in New York City, did you?” Hicks said she didn’t. That will conclude testimony for the week. The judge is excusing the jury now.
Hope Hicks is excused and leaves the courtroom. Overall, I think the defense will be very happy with what it got from her — but so will the prosecution.
Trump doesn’t look in Hicks’s direction as she leaves. She also doesn’t look toward him.
Emil Bove is now asking Hope Hicks about Trump's concerned over how his wife would react to the “Access Hollywood” tape. “President Trump really values Mrs. Trump’s opinion, and she doesn't weigh in all the time, but when she does, it’s really meaningful to him,” Hicks says. “He really, really respects what she has to say. I think he was just concerned of what her perception of this would be.” Hicks’s comments are similar to what a number of former White House officials have said about Trump’s reactivity to his wife’s opinions, regardless of what else was swirling around.
And again, this could aid the defense’s “family man” argument.
Emil Bove, the defense lawyer, has begun to ask Hope Hicks about her work on Trump's presidential campaign. He continues to press the argument that the work she did for Trump, and the work done by David Pecker, the former publisher of The National Enquirer, was all the normal course of business for a presidential candidate.
Emil Bove builds on this theme, getting Hope Hicks to agree that Michael Cohen “went rogue” and did things that were “unauthorized.” These answers are largely helpful to the defense’s efforts to build a case that Cohen could have arranged the hush money without Trump’s direct orders.
Hicks further makes the defense lawyers’ point for them, saying of Cohen, “He liked to call himself a fixer, or Mr. Fix-it, and it was only because he first broke it.”
Bove, who can be a real pitbull in cross-examinations, is being studiously gentle here with Hicks.
Emil Bove is now asking Hicks about how Michael Cohen did not have an official role with Trump's 2016 campaign. “He would try to insert himself at certain moments,” she said, which will feed into the defense's argument that Cohen was freelancing.
This line of questioning from the defense is clearly designed to create distance between Trump and Cohen and to minimize Cohen’s role.
The comment echoes something David Pecker, the former publisher of The National Enquirer, said of Cohen, that he would try to “inject” himself into the campaign.
Distancing Cohen from the campaign also supports the argument that the hush-money payment he made to Stormy Daniels was not a campaign-finance violation.
Emil Bove, the defense lawyer, heads straight into it, asking Hope Hicks about her relationships with the Trump family and employees of the Trump Organization. These questions may seem innocuous, but they will also remind Hicks of her fondness for the family whose head she is now testifying against. For an already emotional witness, this questioning is really difficult. Meanwhile, the sketch artist in front of me has begun a drawing of Hicks crying, holding up a tissue to her eyes.
Hope Hicks is back — still looking fairly upset. She walks to the witness stand and takes a seat. The jurors will be brought in shortly and cross-examination will resume.
As we mentioned earlier today, this is going to be a tricky cross-examination for the defense lawyer, Emil Bove, especially with a vulnerable witness. And Hope Hicks just began to cry.
Hicks suddenly broke down a little bit when she was asked about her time at the Trump Organization, and we’re taking a break.
Trump, who has largely avoided looking at Hicks during her testimony, locks his eyes on her as she starts to cry.
Bove has a tough job here. His client is furious with Hicks. And Bove will have to impeach her credibility or otherwise disrupt her testimony without coming off as too aggressive and alienating sympathetic jurors. The prosecutors are now leaving the room hastily, looking somewhat concerned.
Hicks’s emotion seemingly came quickly, as Emil Bove, the defense lawyer, had just begun with a few basic questions. Before that, she had been remarkably composed in the face of an intense moment
Hope Hicks is asked what she made Trump's suggestion to her that Michael Cohen had made a payment to Stormy Daniels “out of the kindness of his heart.” Hicks acknowledges that it did not fit in with the Cohen she knew, who she did not understand to be “an especially charitable person or selfless person.” The direct examination concludes with those very tough questions and Emil Bove, one of Trump's lawyers, stands up to cross-examine Hicks.
It's a Friday afternoon and there’s less than an hour to go but the jury seems riveted. We’ve had a really remarkable day of testimony, most of it from Hope Hicks.
For the record, we have had two fresh witnesses today, both of whom have cast aspersions on Michael Cohen. Hope Hicks just all but told the jury that Cohen had lied about the hush-money payment. Another sign that prosecutors are none too concerned about these lies. Cohen says that during this period of his life, he lied on Trump’s behalf.
Hope Hicks is now describing the initial Wall Street Journal article about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels. She says she cannot recall certain facts about this period, including a conversation with Michael Cohen. But she says if the prosecution has something to refresh her memory, she is willing to look at it. She has gotten considerably more nervous-looking again, clenching her jaw and stumbling a bit in her speech.
As Hope Hicks starts talking about her time at the White House, after Trump was elected, Trump is sitting motionless at the defense table with his eyes closed.
Hope Hicks says Trump was very concerned about the Wall Street Journal story about his alleged affairs and the hush-money payments. He was worried about his wife’s reaction and asked Hicks to make sure the newspapers weren’t delivered to their residence this morning. Trump also asked her how the story “was playing” — given this was only a few days before the election.
Hicks just handed a real gift to the defense. As Matthew Colangelo, the prosecutor, asked about Trump’s reaction to the Wall Street Journal article, she responds: “He was concerned about how it would be viewed by his wife.” This is something the defense touched upon in its opening statement when it sought to portray Trump as a family man. It provides an alternative motive for covering up damaging information, a believable one that is unrelated to his electoral chances.
Colangelo sought to get another, more helpful response, asking if Trump was concerned about the campaign. Hicks acknowledged that Trump was concerned about how the story was playing — but her answer about his family was far more specific, and definitive. We will not be surprised if we see that in the defense’s closing argument.
We know this, but it’s still amazing to hear Hope Hicks say it aloud: During the period where she was texting with Michael Cohen about the Wall Street Journal story and the damage it could potentially cause, the presidential election was three days away.
Listening to the testimony about the timing of all of this underscores the duality of Trump’s life at that moment. On the one hand, he was on the cusp of becoming the president of the United States. On the other, he was still wading in the muck of the tabloid New York City life he had lived for decades.
The prosecution has now brought up text messages between Hope Hicks and Michael Cohen on Nov. 4, 2016, after the Wall Street Journal article about Trump’s alleged affairs with Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels was published. Cohen is repeatedly — and with great urgency — asking Hicks for a status update on the story.
In these text messages, Cohen is closely monitoring how many other outlets are picking up on the WSJ story about the alleged hush-money payments. When Cohen mentions how little coverage the story was getting, Hope replies to Cohen, “Keep praying!! It’s working!”
Hicks acknowledges the irony as she reads these messages, in which Cohen fretted about the story becoming more public than it already was. The story, of course, became a criminal case — the one you’re reading about right now.
One text from Cohen to Hicks is particularly damaging to the defendant: Cohen says he’s got a denial from Stormy Daniels, whom he calls “Storm,” but is holding it in reserve.
Hope Hicks is explaining how the Trump campaign responded to the story about Karen McDougal, who by this point had been paid money by the parent company of The National Enquirer to keep quiet. Hicks says that, internally, she was told — presumably by the candidate himself — that Trump had not had an affair with McDougal, but that she did not remember Trump “verbatim” saying that he had no knowledge of that hush-money deal. The jury is seeing something that prosecutors have sought to show them is a lie being shared with the media, and the public.
We then see that Hicks denied “unequivocally” to the Wall Street Journal that Trump had a relationship with Stormy Daniels. Hicks says that’s what she was told, and that she testified to that effect in front of the grand jury that indicted the former president.
Hope Hicks's testimony is a good reminder of something reporters frequently encounter. Some public relations people will flatly deny stories, and put their name to those denials, without having any idea whether the stories they are denying are true or false.
Court is only expect to run for another hour and twenty minutes. They’re ending early today. It will be interesting to see if Hope Hicks is back on the stand on Monday.
Hope Hicks, testifying again, says she denied that Trump had a relationship with Stormy Daniels to The Wall Street Journal. She is then asked if she witnessed conversations between Trump and Michael Cohen. “I believe I heard Mr. Trump speaking to Mr. Cohen shortly after the story was published,” she says.
The more prosecutors can illustrate the Cohen-Trump relationship — which they really have started to home in on, starting yesterday with a recording of the two men speaking — the easier it may be to persuade jurors of Cohen’s story that he was doing Trump’s bidding as he sought to silence Daniels.
We are back in the courtroom and Hope Hicks has returned to the stand. She left off starting to discuss Stormy Daniels, the porn star who would eventually receive a payment from Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen.