Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign was seized with worry about the potential political damage from a tape that showed Trump bragging about grabbing women sexually without their permission, long-time Trump adviser Hope Hicks testified Friday at his hush money trial.
Ms Hicks, once one of Trump’s closest confidants, was subpoenaed by prosecutors, who are trying to show that the uproar over the infamous leaked Access Hollywood tape hastened Trump’s then-lawyer to pay off a porn actor to bury a negative story that could imperil his 2016 presidential bid.
Ms Hicks’ testimony provided jurors with a glimpse into the chaotic fallout in the Trump campaign over the tape’s release just days before a crucial debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Ms Hicks described being stunned and huddling with other Trump advisers after learning about the tape’s existence from a Washington Post reporter.
“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,” Ms Hicks testified. “This was a damaging development.”
She added: “This was just pulling us backwards in a way that was going to be hard to overcome.”
In the aftermath of the tape’s release, she asked Trump’s then-lawyer, Michael Cohen, to chase down a rumour of another potentially damaging tape.
Ms Hicks said she wanted to be proactive in seeking out the supposed tape because she did not want anyone to be “blindsided.” There ended up not being one.
Four days before the 2016 election, Ms Hicks said she received a request for comment from a Wall Street Journal reporter for a forthcoming story about American Media buying the rights to former Playboy model Karen McDougal’s story that she had an affair with Trump years earlier.
Trump denies the allegations.
Ms Hicks recalled reaching out to Jared Kushner in hopes he could use his connections to Rupert Murdoch, the owner of the Journal’s parent company, to help delay the story.
Mr Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, told her that he likely would not be able to reach Murdoch in time, Ms Hicks testified.
Trump showed no emotion as he watched Ms Hicks take the witness stand, where she acknowledged after stepping up to the microphone that she was “really nervous”.
Referring to her former boss as “Mr Trump”, she told the court she last communicated with him in the summer or autumn of 2022.
While no longer in Trump’s inner circle, Ms Hicks spoke about the former president in glowing terms as the prosecutor began questioning her about her background.
Ms Hicks complimented Trump multiple times in the first few minutes of her testimony, describing him as a “very good multitasker, a very hard worker”.
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 Mr Cohen, who paid porn performer Stormy Daniels 130,000 US dollars (£104,000) for her silence before he went to prison for the hush money scheme.
Trump’s defence has worked to poke holes in the credibility of prosecution witnesses and to show that Trump was trying to protect his reputation and family – not his campaign – by keeping the women quiet.
The defence also suggested while questioning a lawyer who represented two women in hush money negotiations that Trump was, in fact, the victim of extortion.
Trump has denied the claims of extramarital sexual encounters.
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying internal Trump Organisation business records.
The charges stem from paperwork such as invoices and cheques that were deemed legal expenses in Trump Organisation records.
Prosecutors say they were really reimbursements to Mr Cohen for the hush money payment to Daniels.