Trump hush money trial: Top takeaways as Hope Hicks testifies
Prosecutors for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office closed out the week at Donald Trump’s criminal hush money trial with testimony from a major witness — former Trump aide Hope Hicks.
As one of the closest advisers to the former president, Ms Hicks was present at key moments during the 2016 campaign and for the first year of Mr Trump’s administration.
As press secretary to the king of self-promotion, she worked closely with him as election day neared in 2016 just as the Access Hollywood tape and Karen McDougal affair allegations rocked the campaign.
In approximately three hours of testimony, she gave jurors firsthand insight into Trumpworld during a tumultuous few weeks on the campaign trail — giving a strong suggestion that her former boss was involved in payment to Stormy Daniels.
Here are the key takeaways from the day in court:
Trump walks back Thursday’s claim gag order stops him from testifying
On Thursday as he left the courtroom and delivered his usual diatribe to the assembled media, Mr Trump claimed that because of the gag order imposed by Judge Juan Merchan, he was prohibited from testifying in his own defence.
That was totally untrue.
On Friday morning, on the way into court, he walked back that statement when asked whether the gag order would stop him from testifying.
“No. It won’t stop me from testifying. The gag order is not for testifying. It stops me from talking about people and responding when they say things about me,” the former president said, presumably having been corrected by his legal team overnight.
Once in the courtroom, Judge Merchan began by clarifying the extent of the gag order for Mr Trump in person.
Merchan, diplomatically, said there “may be a misunderstanding regarding the order restriction extrajudicial statements”.
“I want to stress Mr Trump that you have an absolute right to testify in trial,” he said. “That is a constitutional right that cannot be denied … in any way. … It is a fundamental right that cannot be infringed upon.”
The gag order restricting extrajudicial statements “does not prevent you from testifying in any way … or limit or minimise what you say” from the witness stand, the judge added that it “does not apply to statements made from the witness stand”.
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