Hope Hicks, a former advisor to Donald Trump, testified on Friday that the former president told him in days before the 2016 presidential elections to deny that he had had a sexual relationship with porn star Stormy Daniels.
He Hicks testimony offered jurors a look at the campaign’s damage control efforts, when Trump faced multiple accusations of sexual behavior unseemly in the final weeks of his successful campaign for the White House.
The charges that Donald Trump faces before the elections in the United States
Trump pleaded not guilty to charges of falsifying business records to cover up a payment of $130,000 to Danielswho threatened to make public the story of their sexual encounter in 2006. Hicks testified that he told Trump four days before the election of November 8, 2016 that the The Wall Street Journal would publish details of Daniels’ story.
“He wanted to make sure that any type of relationship would be denied”said Hicks, who served as the campaign’s press secretary.
He added that Trump didn’t want his wife Melania to see the storywhich also included allegations that he had an affair with former Playboy model Karen McDougal. Trump denied having had sexual relations with either of them.
“He was worried about how his wife would see himand he wanted me to make sure the newspapers were not delivered to the residence that morning,” Hicks said.
The determination of prosecutors to determine if the payment to the actress changed the 2016 elections
The prosecutors of the first criminal trial against a former president of the United StatesThey maintain that the payment to Daniels corrupted the elections by suppressing news that could have influenced voters when deciding whether to support Republican Trump or Hillary Clinton, then his Democratic rival. Prosecutors say Trump falsified records to cover up violations of electoral law and tax law.
He Hicks testimony could help Trump lawyers to argue that he paid Daniels to prevent his wife, and not voters, from learning about the adult film star’s allegations. Hicks briefly cried during his testimony.
Trump, Republican presidential candidate again this year, sat expressionless at the defendants’ table during Hicks’ testimony, the first person who worked for the Trump campaign to appear as a witness in the trial that has already been going on for 11 days.
Source: Ambito
