Trump strategy at criminal trial: "Deny, Deny, Deny."
Key parts of Hope Hicks’s testimony, from the Trump trial transcript
Hicks, who was Trump’s spokeswoman and considered to be one of his most loyal former aides, grew emotional at times as she painted a picture of a man deeply involved in his campaign’s messaging strategy and concerned about scandalous stories landing in the public eye.
Here are key moments from Hicks’s testimony, lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
Trump learns of the Access Hollywood tape
Hicks was in her office in Trump Tower on Oct. 7, 2016 — about a month before Election Day — when she received an email from Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold that contained a bombshell: a transcript of what would become known as the “Access Hollywood” tape. In the 2005 recording, which had never been made public, Trump described in extremely lewd terms how he kissed, groped and tried to have sex with women. In her testimony, Hicks describes the moment she learned of the tape.
Hope Hicks: I was concerned about the contents of the email. I was concerned about the lack of time to respond. I was concerned that we had a transcript, but not a tape. ... There was a lot at play.
Hicks said she then forwarded Fahrenthold’s email to Jason Miller, Kellyanne Conway and Stephen K. Bannon, key members of Trump’s campaign leadership. “Need to hear the tape, one, need to hear the tape to be sure; two, deny, deny, deny,” she wrote in an accompanying message.
Assistant District Attorney Matthew Colangelo asked her about that initial response strategy.
Hicks: It’s a reflex. I, obviously, was a little shocked and not realizing that the entirety of the transcript was in the email. So strategy number two was going to be a little more difficult.
Hicks then went to find key advisers who were gathered on the 25th floor of Trump Tower for a debate prep session in a glass conference room. The impromptu gathering caught Trump’s attention, she said.
Colangelo: Tell the jury what happened next?
Hicks: You know, I shared the email with Mr. Trump. Sort of verbally, and we were at the time — based on the conversation outside the conference room, trying to get a copy of the audio or the tape to assess the situation further. We weren’t sure how to respond yet. We were kind of just trying to gather more information and everyone was observing the shock of it.
Colangelo: When you say “you shared the content verbally,” did you read Mr. Trump the email you received from Mr. Fahrenthold?
Hicks: I read him the email and I have a vague recollection of starting to read the transcript. And then he finished reading it himself, I believe.
Colangelo: Did you hand him the email for him to read?
Hicks: Yes, that’s my recollection.
Colangelo: And what, if anything, did he say?
Hicks: He said that that didn’t sound like something he would say.
Hicks says she and Trump watched the videotape within minutes of that exchange. Colangelo asks if Trump was upset; Hicks answers “yes.”
Colangelo: What was your first reaction when you heard the tape?
Hicks: Just a little stunned. It’s hard to describe. ... Yeah, it was definitely concerning, and I had, you know, a good sense that this was going to be a massive story and sort of dominate the news cycle for the next several days at least.
Colangelo: Were you concerned about the effect it would have on the campaign?
Hicks: Yes, it was a damaging development.
Trump team learns of Karen McDougal story
Prosecutors also questioned Hicks about how the Trump campaign responded to a different crisis some weeks later: a report in the Wall Street Journal that a tabloid had paid to obtain details of Playboy model Karen McDougal’s alleged affair with Trump but never published anything about it. The National Enquirer’s parent company reportedly bought the exclusive rights to prevent competitors from revealing the allegations of an affair.
Hicks described how she learned of the Journal’s reporting on Nov. 4, days before the election. When the email landed in her inbox, Hicks was on one of Trump’s planes at a campaign stop in Ohio.
Colangelo: Did you tell Mr. Trump about this inquiry from the Wall Street Journal before he began speaking at the rally?
Hicks: I believe I did, yes, just because ... I was worried about not having enough time to respond while he was speaking, so I did let him know that we had received an inquiry, and ... that I was gonna try to chase down some answers.
Colangelo: After that, what did you do to chase down some answers?
Hicks: I believe I forwarded the email to Jared Kushner. I wanted to loop him in because he was sort of overseeing a lot of the campaign operations at this point. And, two, he had a very good relationship with Rupert Murdoch, and I was hoping to see if we could buy a little extra time to deal with this.
Kushner is Trump’s son-in-law and the Journal is published by News Corp., which is owned by Murdoch.
The next morning, the Journal published the story — and Hicks said Trump worried about the impact of the report on his family.
Hicks: He was concerned about the story. He was concerned how it would be viewed by his wife, and he wanted me to make sure that the newspapers weren’t delivered to their residence that morning.
Michael Cohen’s role in the Stormy Daniels hush money payment
Later on the witness stand, Hicks was grilled on the fallout in 2018 from another Journal article, about a $130,000 payment to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels — the transaction at the heart of Trump’s trial. The payment was made by Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen.
Cohen, who has since become an outspoken Trump critic and is expected to be a key witness in the case, publicly claimed shortly after the story was published to have made the payment with his own money. Trump, who initially denied having any knowledge of the payment, later acknowledged reimbursing Cohen. According to the 34-count indictment filed against Trump by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D), the Trump campaign categorized the payment as a legal fee instead of as a campaign expense, to keep it from public disclosure forms. (In 2021, Cohen completed a three-year prison term after pleading guilty to financial crimes and lying to Congress in two criminal cases. One of the cases involved campaign finance violations related to Daniels and McDougal, who alleged an affair with Trump.)
Colangelo asked Hicks on the stand about whether Trump communicated directly with Cohen at the time about the Daniels story. Hicks said she knew of only one instance.
Hicks: I believe it was ... the morning after Michael had given a statement to the New York Times, saying that he had, in fact, made this payment without Mr. Trump’s knowledge. President Trump was saying he spoke to Michael, and that Michael had paid this woman to protect him from a false allegation, and that Michael felt like it was his job to protect him, and that’s what he was doing. And he did it out of the kindness of his own heart. He never told anybody about it. And he was continuing to try to protect him up until the point where he felt he had to state what was true.
Colangelo: And this is what President Trump told you Michael Cohen said to him?
Hicks: That’s right.
Colangelo: How long had you known Michael Cohen by that point?
Hicks: Three-and-a-half years.
Colangelo: And did the idea that Mr. Cohen would have made a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels out of the kindness of his heart, was that consistent with your interactions with him up to that point?
Emil Bove, Trump’s lawyer: Objection.
The court: Overruled.
Hicks: I would say that would be out of character for Michael.
Colangelo: Why would it be out of character for Michael?
Bove: Objection.
The court: Overruled.
Hicks: I didn’t know Michael to be an especially charitable person, um, or selfless person. Um, he’s the kind of person who seeks credit.
Colangelo: Did Mr. Trump say anything else about this issue when he told you that Michael made the payment?
Hicks: Just that he thought it was a generous thing to do, and he was appreciative of the loyalty. That’s all I remember.
Colangelo also asked if she recalled Trump sharing his views on the timing of the story’s publication.
Hicks: He wanted to know how it was playing, and just my thoughts and opinion about this story versus having the story — a different kind of story before the campaign had Michael not made that payment. And I think Mr. Trump’s opinion was it was better to be dealing with it now, and that it would have been bad to have that story come out before the election.
By Leo Sands
Leo Sands is a breaking-news reporter and editor in The Washington Post’s London Hub, covering news as it unfolds around the world.
