A former White House Communication Director, Hope Hicks on Friday testified in the criminal trial against ex-United States President, Donald Trump.
Hicks, a former longtime adviser to Trump took the witness stand Friday in his criminal trial, where prosecutors are expected to question her about her knowledge of hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Hicks is the first close Trump adviser to testify in the case, which accuses the former president of a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election by silencing women who claimed to have sexual encounters with him.
Hicks served as Trump’s 2016 campaign press secretary and was one of a small number of early campaign staffers who joined his administration.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying internal Trump Organization business records.
The charges stem from things like invoices and checks that were deemed legal expenses in Trump Organization records when prosecutors say they were really reimbursements to Cohen for the $130,000 hush money payment to Porn star, Stormy Daniels
However, prosecutors say Hicks spoke with Trump by phone during a frenzied effort to keep allegations of his infidelity out of the press after the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape leaked weeks before the 2016 election.
In the tape, from 2005, Trump boasted about grabbing women without their permission.
However, the former Republican president denied the allegations of extramarital sexual encounters.
Prosecutors have spent the week using detailed testimony about meetings, email exchanges, business transactions and bank accounts to build on the foundation of their case accusing Trump of a scheme to illegally influence the election.
They are setting the stage for pivotal testimony from Cohen, who paid porn actor Stormy Daniels $130,000 for her silence before he went to prison for the hush money scheme.
