Hope Hicks, Once Trump’s Voice, Testifies About ‘Access Hollywood’ Tape

NEW YORK — Hope Hicks, Donald Trump’s former press secretary and White House communications director, testified Friday at his criminal trial in Manhattan about the deep anxiety that gripped Trump’s campaign after the revelation of the “Access Hollywood” tape in October 2016, weeks before the presidential election, in which he bragged about indiscriminately grabbing women’s genitals.

“I was concerned, very concerned,” Hicks said, adding she knew it was “going to be a massive story.” After getting an email requesting comment on the tape from The Washington Post before it broke the news, Hicks sent an email to several other senior aides with possible responses, including: “Deny, deny, deny.”

But soon, Hicks said, the campaign began to hear troubling accounts about Trump’s behavior toward other women, which the candidate denied on the trail and in online posts.

Hicks also described behind-the-scenes concerns about a Wall Street Journal article, published days before the election, concerning Karen McDougal, a Playboy model who said she had an affair with Trump in 2006 and 2007. McDougal’s story was purchased by the parent company of The National Enquirer, only to be buried.

Michael Cohen, Trump’s fixer, peppered Hicks with texted requests for updates about the Journal article, she testified. Reading a text in which Cohen expressed doubt that the story would get “much play,” she laughed a little, saying, “The irony in that.”

She also said Trump was worried about how the story was being received, including by his wife, Melania. “He wanted me to make sure that the newspapers weren’t delivered to their residence that morning,” Hicks said.

Hicks, a onetime member of Trump’s inner circle, sat just feet from the defendant in a Manhattan courtroom as the third witness to testify Friday. Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records in relation to a $130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election. The payment was meant to silence her account of a sexual liaison with Trump.

Here’s what else to know:

— The charges involve Trump’s business: Prosecutors say Trump falsified the records to cover up his reimbursement to Cohen for the payment to Daniels, disguising the checks as “legal expenses” by the Trump Organization. If convicted, Trump faces up to four years in prison. He pleaded not guilty and has denied that he had sex with Daniels.

— Two other Friday witnesses: Douglas Daus, a forensic analyst from the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which brought the case against Trump, testified about a recording that he extracted from Cohen’s phone in which Cohen and Trump talked about the funding of McDougal’s hush-money deal. And Georgia Longstreet, a paralegal with the DA’s office, described monitoring and logging Trump’s social media accounts, including a video statement from Trump after the “Access Hollywood” tape was revealed in which he admitted to saying “foolish things.”

— A gag order ruling is pending: The judge, Juan M. Merchan, on Thursday held the trial’s second hearing on whether Trump had violated a gag order barring him from attacking witnesses and jurors. Earlier this week, Merchan fined Trump $9,000 for nine violations and threatened the former president with jail if he continued to violate the order, which prohibits attacks on jurors, witnesses, court staff and others.

— Daniels’ former lawyer testified Thursday: The cross-examination of Keith Davidson, a Los Angeles lawyer who brokered the deals for Daniels and McDougal, dove into the celebrity-obsessed digital media environment of the past 15 years that helped Trump’s rise to political prominence.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .