A former Communications Director of White House, Hope Hicks, on Friday, said there was fear over the 2016 presidential campaign of ex-President Donald Trump.
Hicks said there was fear over the impact of ‘Access Hollywood’ tape of Trump and porn star, Stormy Daniels.
Testifying during the hush money trial, the former White House Communication Director told Manhattan prosecutors that Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign was turned upside down following a leak of the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape.
Trump’s 2016 campaign was seized with worry about the potential political damage from a tape that showed the former president bragging about grabbing women sexually without their permission.
The former president was said to have paid off Stormy Daniels $130,000 through his lawyer, Michael Cohen during the build-up to the 2016 presidential election.
When the story broke in October 7, 2016, about a month to the election, Hicks described being stunned and huddling with other Trump advisers after learning about the tape’s existence from the Washington Post reporter.
Hicks forwarded the reporter’s request to campaign leadership with the recommendation to “deny, deny, deny,” she said.
She testified: “I had a good sense to believe this was going to be a massive story and that it was going to dominate the news cycle for the next several days.
“This was a damaging development.
“This was just pulling us backwards in a way that was going to be hard to overcome.”
Prosecutors called her to the witness stand to strengthen their case alleging Trump worked to prevent damaging stories about his personal life from becoming public as part of a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 presidential election.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has sought to establish that link not just to secure a conviction but also to persuade the public of the significance of the case, which may be the only one of four Trump prosecutions to reach trial this year.
Hicks told jurors that Trump claimed he did not know anything about Cohen paying $130,000 to Daniels to prevent her from going public with claims of a sexual encounter with Trump.
She said Trump eventually came to believe that burying Daniels’ story was prudent, saying he thought “it would have been bad to have that story come out before the election.”
But when asked if Trump was also worried about the story’s impact on the campaign, Hicks responded that everything they spoke about during that time was viewed through the lens of the campaign.
Trump would often ask her, “How is it playing?” as a way of gauging how his appearances, speeches and policies were landing with voters, she said.
