Hope Hicks, a former top aide to Donald Trump, testified on Friday that he told her in the final days of the 2016 presidential election to deny that he had a sexual relationship with porn star Stormy Daniels.
Hicks’ testimony gave jurors an inside look at the campaign’s damage-control efforts when Trump faced multiple accusations of unflattering sexual behavior in the waning weeks of his successful White House campaign.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges of falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 payment made at that time to Daniels, who was threatening to go public with her story of their 2006 sexual encounter.
Hicks testified that she told Trump four days before the November 8, 2016, election that the Wall Street Journal would publish details of Daniels’ story.
“He wanted to make sure that there was a denial of any kind of relationship,” said Hicks, who served as campaign press secretary.
She said Trump did not want his wife Melania to see the story, which also included allegations that he had an affair with former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Trump has denied having sex with either woman.
“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.
Prosecutors in the first criminal trial of a former US president argue that the payment to Daniels corrupted the election by suppressing news that could have influenced voters as they decided whether to back the Republican Trump or Hillary Clinton, then his Democratic rival.
Prosecutors say Trump falsified records to cover up election-law and tax-law violations, which elevates the 34 counts he faces from a misdemeanor to a felony punishable by up to four years in prison.
Hicks’ testimony could help Trump’s lawyers make their case that he paid off Daniels to keep his wife, not voters, from hearing the adult film star’s allegations.
She said Trump told her that his personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, paid off Daniels to “protect him from a false allegation” out of the “kindness of his own heart.”
