A former close adviser to former US President Donald Trump testified this Friday during his trial in New York about the “crisis” in which the president’s campaign was involved in 2016 after a tape came to light in the he boasted groping women.
Former press secretary Hope Hicks was the first person in the Republican presidential candidate’s inner circle in November to take the stand in his historic trial, in which he is accused of he hid records to cover paying porn star Stormy Daniels to avoid him. another scandal before the 2016 elections.
“I was a little taken aback,” Hicks said of footage released by Access Hollywood in which Trump can be heard bragging about grabbing women’s genitals.
“There was a consensus among all of us that the tape was harmful, that this was an emergency,” he said.
Hicks was called by prosecutors, who have argued that the scandal over the recording fueled the Trump campaign’s effort to silence Daniels for her intention to reveal an alleged sexual encounter with Trump, who was already married.
The falsification of these payments, which they presented as legal expenses of his personal lawyer Michael Cohen, is the reason that put the first vice president of the United States in the dock.
Hicks admitted she was nervous when she began testifying, and later broke down in tears under intense questioning from Trump’s attorney Emil Bove, prompting the judge to order a recess.
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The former adviser was a key player in the final stages of Trump’s successful presidential campaign in 2016, which she entered at the age of 26.
“I briefed Mr. Trump” during the campaign, Hicks told the court, adding that he was “very involved.”
According to David Pecker, former editor of the National Enquirer tabloid and the first witness in the trial, Hicks was at a meeting in 2015 at Trump Tower in New York where he agreed to help Trump’s new campaign next year.
Under the intense gaze of the Republican, which she avoided crossing, she said, however, that she did not remember the meeting. Apparently, the woman still maintains cordial relations with the Trump family.
Hicks also told the jury this past Friday about Trump’s response to a Wall Street Journal article that alleged he had an affair with former Playboy model Karen McDougal, which he later paid, a case similar to the relationship. which is charged. Daniels.
“He was worried about how his wife” Melania was seeing him, Hicks said.
Trump declined to answer reporters’ questions about his former adviser during a break in the proceedings.
– More taxes? –
This Friday’s session began with Judge Juan Merchan speaking directly to Trump to “clear up (any) misunderstandings” about his order banning the speaker from speaking on social media about witnesses, jurors and court staff and their families usually to commit the crime.
Merchan emphasized that Trump had “absolute right to testify” in court, and that his order “only applies to extrajudicial statements… outside of court.” Trump replied: “Thank you.”
Repeated violations of this ordinance have resulted in a $9,000 fine for the Republicans. On Thursday, prosecutor Christopher Conroy urged Merchan to fine Trump for four new violations.
The judge has not yet announced his decision.
As he usually does every day when he arrives and leaves the court where media from all over the world are waiting for him, Trump, who says that he ‘felt like a victim of a “witch hunt,” lamenting this Friday that his presence was forced at the trial. keeping him away from his election campaign.
So far, at the request of the prosecution, in addition to Pecker, other witnesses who explained how the payments were made have stood, especially Keith Davidson, a lawyer for Daniels and the model McDougal.
In addition to the New York case, Trump has been charged in Washington and Georgia with conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election. He also faces charges in Florida for sending tampering with classified documents after he left the White House.
Things start in New York on Monday.
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2024-05-04 03:33:57
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