What is Hope Hicks, a former member of the Trump administration, who is currently giving evidence in the New York payoff case?
"Hicks appeared before the grand jury looking anxious and uneasy. As CNN had reported earlier, she had taken the stand last year before Trump's indictment, just like fellow Trump aide Kellyanne Conway. Hicks was Trump's press secretary during his campaign and could provide crucial insight into the political operations during the final weeks before the 2016 elections, since Cohen claims that he was paying off adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep her quiet about an alleged affair with Trump, which might have seriously damaged Trump's presidential campaign. Trump allegedly reimbursed Cohen after he took office and now faces 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal the real nature of those payments.
The former president has pleaded not guilty and denies the affair.
Hicks has had a long professional relationship with Trump that began when she worked in communications for the Trump Organization. She was one of the first staffers to join Trump's 2016 campaign and, during his presidency, she rose to become the White House Communications Director, becoming one of the longest-lasting aides in an administration known for its frequent staff turnovers.
She proved to be a staunch Trump loyalist, consistently defending him amid criticism, earning him the nickname "Hopey." However, the proximity to Trump often put her under media scrutiny.
Hicks testified before the House Intelligence Committee in 2018 about Russian interference in the 2016 election and admitted to having occasionally told "white lies" on Trump's behalf. After facing criticism for both her January 2018 testimony and her relationship with Rob Porter, Trump's former staff secretary who was accused of domestic violence, she resigned from the White House and took on the role of Chief Communications Officer at Fox News. Porter denied the allegations and later resigned.
During Trump's failed reelection attempt in 2020, Hicks returned to the White House but faced backlash for not believing the election had been stolen, according to books chronicling the final months in the Trump White House.
By October 2022, Hicks appeared before the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021. In a clip played by the committee, she talked about a conversation she had with Trump about his claims of election fraud: "I was becoming increasingly concerned that... we were damaging his legacy," she told the committee. She testified that Trump said, "No one will care about my legacy if I lose, so that won't matter. The only thing that matters is winning."
Politico reported in March that Hicks had been running a small consultancy shop doing communications with a diverse clientele, which included fashion retailer Shein.
An attorney representing Hicks did not respond to a request for comment on this story."
The focus is on Trump's alleged plot to hide payments to Stormy Daniels
The main issue in Trump's trial currently revolves around the supposed conspiracy to falsify company records to cover up a $130,000 payment to Daniels to keep her silenced. Cohen has stated that Trump instructed him to make the payments "for the principal purpose of influencing the election."
Cohen declared that he paid Daniels himself, but later met with Trump in the Oval Office to discuss how Trump would repay him through a series of false invoices for legal services.
Trump insists that he has no knowledge of any payments to Daniels.
Trump tweeted earlier that Cohen received a monthly retainer, separate from the campaign. During jury selection in his trial, he stated, "I was paying a lawyer and marked it down as a legal expense — some accountant, I didn't know — marked it down as a legal expense, that's exactly what it was — and you get indicted over that?"
Federal search warrants made public in 2019 showed that prosecutors with the US Attorney's office in the Southern District of New York discovered a frantic effort within the Trump campaign to suppress additional allegations of a sexual nature from becoming public after the "Access Hollywood" tape surfaced in October 2016. The "Access Hollywood" tape had been released and led to the downfall of his campaign.
On the day after the tape surfaced, Hicks contacted Cohen, and Trump also joined. After that, Cohen held at least 10 phone conversations that day, some of which involved Trump or Hicks and others involving American Media Inc. executives David Pecker and Dylan Howard. At the time, AMI owned the National Enquirer tabloid.
Several of those discussions, according to FBI agents, may have been about Daniels, an adult film actress whose actual name is Stephanie Clifford, but the precise contents of these calls were not revealed in the documents.
In a footnote in the warrant's affidavit, an FBI agent mentioned that Hicks informed a different FBI officer that, "to the best of her recollection," she first learned about Daniels' allegations in November, a month after the calls took place.
The narrative shared with CNN then detailed Hicks' October discussions with Cohen, which revolved around the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape.
Hicks openly admitted, "He was indeed keen on doing something discreetly that I wasn't fully aware of. However, nothing contradicts what I've shared before."
Regarding Hicks' involvement in the alleged election interference plan by Trump, there have been no accusations by prosecutors.
During her House Judiciary Committee testimony prior to the revelation of the documents, Hicks responded negatively when questioned by Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. If she was present during discussions between Trump and Cohen regarding Daniels. According to a released transcript, she declared, "Not once."
Hicks added that her knowledge of Daniels was limited and obtained only through reports from journalists. She stated, "I never received any specific details from the journalist, nor did I have any additional information other than what was conveyed by the journalist."
In the aftermath of the documents' release, Rep. Jerry Nadler, a New York Democrat who was chairing the House Judiciary Committee at the time, requested Hicks to return to the committee to clarify her testimony. This came in response to potential contradictions between Hicks' statement and the unveiled evidence regarding the phone calls.
Her attorneys responded, maintaining that none of Hicks' October 8 calls with Cohen centered around Daniels or her 'hush money' agreement. They emphasized, "The information in the affidavit is only a timeline of phone calls but does not provide details about their content. The occurrence of multiple phone calls on the same date does not signify they were about the same subject."
From Hicks' perspective, "Regardless of what Cohen conversed about with other individuals on that day, his interactions with me were not related to Stormy Daniels or any 'hush money' arrangement."
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Hicks' testimony in the New York payoff case regarding Stormy Daniels and the alleged affair with Trump could provide crucial insights into the political operations during the final weeks before the 2016 elections. During her House Judiciary Committee testimony, Hicks denied having direct knowledge of any discussions between Trump and Cohen regarding Daniels.
Source: edition.cnn.com
