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Source:Meidas Touch left to right: Donald Trump's longtime communications assistant Hope Hicks & Defendant Don himself.
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"MeidasTouch host Ben Meiselas reports on the devastating trial testimony by Donald Trump’s former top aide Hope Hicks."
"Taking the stand in Trump's criminal trial, the ex-White House aide was reunited with her former boss, whom she said she hadn't seen in almost two years.
Former White House communications director Hope Hicks took the stand Friday in Donald Trump's New York criminal trial, a tense reunion for the former president and a woman who was once one of his closest aides.
"I'm really nervous," Hicks said as she took the stand as the ninth witness to be called in the case, and led the jury through a dramatic inside account of Trump's reaction to the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape that nearly derailed his first presidential bid.
She later broke down in tears at the start of her cross-examination by Trump attorney Emil Bove, when he asked about the Trump family having given her an opportunity to work at their company, leading to a short recess while she composed herself.
Hicks started work at the Trump Organization in 2014 before going to work on Trump's 2016 campaign and then his administration. Another witness, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, said she was in and out of a key meeting he had with Trump and his then-lawyer Michael Cohen in 2015, where Pecker agreed to help them suppress stories that could hurt Trump's campaign.
Cohen and Pecker are key figures in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case against Trump. Prosecutors say the three men organized a scheme that resulted in Cohen’s paying adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about a sexual encounter she said she had with Trump in 2006. Trump later repaid Cohen in payments the DA says he falsely classified as legal expenses.
Trump pleaded not guilty to all 34 counts of falsifying business records. He has also denied having an affair with Daniels or another woman at the center of the case, former Playboy model Karen McDougal.
Hicks said Friday she has not spoken to Trump in almost two years.
She told the jury when she worked on Trump's campaign as his press secretary beginning in 2015, they would speak multiple times a day. Asked how large their press team was, Hicks said, "It was just me and Mr. Trump" until the later stages of his successful run, and she lauded his communications and branding skills.
"We were all just following his lead," she said.
Asked if she was in and out of a meeting with Pecker, she said she didn't remember but that it was "possible." She said she remembered Trump praising articles the Enquirer had done slamming his then-Republican rivals Ben Carson and Sen. Ted Cruz. She recalled that Trump called an article that tried to link Cruz's father to the Kennedy assassination "great reporting." Pecker testified that the piece was a concoction.
She said the size of the staff had grown by Oct. 2016, which is when she got an email from a Washington Post reporter with an "extremely urgent request" for comment on what subsequently became known as the "Access Hollywood" tape. The 2005 hot mic recording includes audio of Trump making lewd comments about women and saying he can grope them without their consent.
Hicks said she was "very concerned" by the email — both about the contents "and the lack of time to respond." She said she forwarded the request on to campaign leadership, including Kellyanne Conway, Steve Bannon and Jason Miller. She eventually found them altogether preparing for Trump's debate with Hillary Clinton.
She said Trump asked her what was going on, and she read the email aloud to him. She said she had a vague recollection of starting to read the transcript of his remarks that the Post reporter had sent, and that Trump then he read the rest of it to himself. “That doesn’t sound like something I would say,” she recalled him saying.
When they began talking about how to respond, Trump suggested the tape was not a big deal and “not anything to get so upset over,” Hicks said, and he called it “pretty standard stuff for two guys” talking.
Hicks said she was "stunned" when she eventually heard the tape and had a sense it would be a "massive story" and a "crisis."
The campaign put out a short statement from Trump calling the remarks "locker room banter." He later tweeted a video statement, where he said “I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize,” before going on to attack Clinton."
As I wrote about this last week:
"They show that he had an affair with Stormy Daniels and perhaps Karen McDougal as well, but that he not just tried to cover up those affairs with hush money.
And not just try to prevent his wife Melania and his son Barron from finding out about these affairs, but to prevent the voters, especially Independents, as well as Republican college educated, urban and suburban women from finding out about these affairs, before they voted in 2016
As well as covered up these affairs and did that with illegal political contributions to his his own 2016 presidential campaign, that he didn't even report, which is another crime in New York
They can convict Defendant Don of election interference as well, which is a felony in New York.
And this David Pecker-Michael Cohen link with the hush money payments is a direct way to move the ball down that road."
As I wrote about this on Tuesday:
"So according to the Meidas Touch, (at least) Hope Hicks not only knew about the adulterous affairs that Donald Trump had with both Stephanie Clifford (perhaps better known as Stormy Daniels) and Karen McDougal. And perhaps was in on setting up the payoffs to both women to keep them both quiet before the 2016 presidential election.
If that's true, they now have two credible witnesses before they get to McDougal and Clifford, that these affairs not just happened, the women were not just paid off, but paid off to keep them quiet before the 2016 presidential election. And if that's the case, they now have him on two felonies. And you just need the paperwork, the bank records, the phone calls, texts, emails, etc, to prove this story."
As I wrote about this yesterday:
"We already now know that the payoffs not just happened from Donald J. Trump to Stephanie Clifford (perhaps better known as Stormy Daniels) and Karen McDougal, but that Donald Trump knew about them, and they were done to prevent the women from coming out with their stories right before the 2016 elections. And it's not just David Pecker who exposed that evidence, (pun intended) but Keith Davidson this week, as well as Hope Hicks being a key witness to this illegal scheme. Now it's just a matter of proving that DJT had these affairs in the 1st place with Clifford and McDougal."
"As Kire believe already talked about and even mentioned this, Hope Hicks establishes that the Trump Campaign in 2016, including herself, were focused on not just how the Access Hollywood tape would affect their campaign, perhaps especially with Independents and Republican women. But also how the alleged affairs with Stephanie Clifford (also known as Stormy Daniels) and Karen McDougal would affect their campaign as well. Not how this affect Donald Trump's wife and son. Which really is the only reason why these payoffs were made. And I'm sure Donald didn't want Melania leaving him before the election that year. But that just might be a guess on my part.
I was watching CNN's late coverage of this trial last night. And at least one of their lawyers, I think including Ellie Honig was arguing that the prosecution doesn't need to establish that the affairs even happened. Just the payoffs and coverups. But as New York defense attorney Arthur Aidala (whose no fan of this case) argued the defense can argue that Donald Trump was being extorted by Keith Davidson and his two female clients. If they establish that the affairs actually happened and can prove that, there goes the defense's only good argument, that their client was being extorted by Davidson, Clifford, and McDougal."
Again we're not lawyers here and I don't want to call this: "Game, set, match" (or whatever the legal term is for game over) but the Manhattan prosecutors have already established that the payments to Stephanie Clifford (also known as Stormy Daniels) and Karen McDougal not only happened, by why they happened, that Donald Trump paid them and why he paid them.
DJT didn't want these stories breaking that he had adulterous affairs while his wife Melania was pregnant with his son Barron back in 2006, coming out right before the 2016 presidential election. And Hope Hicks testified today that Michael Cohen not only gave the the women the money but Donald Trump knew about the payments and he did that for him. And we also know that Donald Trump paid Cohen back for those payments.
Now I think the prosecution has to also establish the affairs, so the defense can't argue that Defendant Don (as The New Democrat as politely as we can all Donald Trump) that he was being extorted by these two women and their lawyer Keith Davidson. And I don't see how you do that with out Stephanie Clifford and Karen McDougal, since these affairs happened, (and I believe they did) they were obviously there and you would think they would be able to corroborate them.
