NEW YORK—The seventh official day of testimony in former President Donald Trump's criminal case in Manhattan produced further revelations about the efforts to silence adult star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal about their alleged affairs with the former commander-in-chief.
Public relations strategy and political operator Hope Hicks took the stand at the behest of the prosecutors to further develop the narrative that Trump's payoffs to Daniels and McDougal were meant to influence the 2016 election.
"He wanted to make sure that there was a denial of any kind of relationship," Hicks told the jury. Hicks served as the press secretary for Donald Trump's presidential campaign in 2016 and worked as director of communications at the White House for intermittent periods during Trump's presidency.
Hicks testified that her team and others informed Trump four days before the 2016 election day that the Wall Street Journal was going to publish an article featuring details of Stormy Daniels' story of an affair in 2006.
She added that she was instructed to deny the claims. This was the same claim in 2018 when the Journal published a story pertaining specifically to his alleged affair with Daniels. The New Yorker also published work in 2018 by Pulitzer Prize winner Ronan Farrow documenting McDougal's alleged affair with the former president that lasted from 2006 to 2007.
Hicks recollected on November 4, 2016, the day the Wall Street Journal published an exposé on David Pecker and the National Enquirer catching-and-killing McDougal's story, that then-candidate Trump instructed her to deny any allegations of affairs between him and Daniels or McDougal.
"He was concerned about how it would be viewed by his wife, and he wanted me to make sure the newspapers weren’t delivered to the residence that morning,” Hicks said, alluding to Trump's concerns that Melania Trump, his wife and a former model herself, would react negatively to the allegations.
During her testimony, Hicks also discussed how the release of the infamous Access Hollywood video featuring Trump and former disgraced host Billy Bush negatively impacted the campaign.
She then cried on the stand, prompting a break. Defense counsel for Trump started cross-examination. Being questioned by Trump's lawyer Emil Bove, Hicks said that she still has respect for her former boss.
Hicks then testified in cross-examination that Trump's former attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, tried to "insert himself" into the 2016 campaign. Cohen was the one who paid Stormy Daniels for her silence through an elaborate scheme of a shell corporation and bank accounts to ensure that Trump's campaign wasn't tied to the $130,000 payment to the AVN Hall of Famer.
Keith Davidson, a Los Angeles-based attorney who represented both Daniels and McDougal, testified yesterday that Cohen was "depressed and despondent" when Trump didn't ask his personal attorney to join him in Washington.
Davidson also testified yesterday that he believes his actions with Cohen, David Pecker and the National Enquirer staff contributed to Trump's win in 2016. Pecker characterized his involvement as unlawful electioneering.
After the court adjourned for the day, Trump informed the public that he and his team intend to appeal Judge Juan Merchan's gag orders. Trump has already been fined $9,000 for nine violations of the gag order handed down by the court limiting his ability to speak on the trial, its stakeholders, the jurors, the prosecutors, the judge himself, and his family. Merchan has already threatened Trump with jail time if he continues to defy the court's gag orders.
The trial in the People of New York v. Donald J. Trump will resume next week.
