Former White House adviser Hope Hick’s testimony in Donald Trump’s hush money trial was a “devastating” blow to his defense on the 34 felony count trial that wrapped up its second week of testimony on Friday.
That is the opinion of Norm Eisen, who assisted the House Judiciary Committee during the first impeachment and trial of then-President Donald Trump.
In a column for CNN, Eisen wrote that with each revelation from Hicks — one of which elicited gasps from courtroom observers — she delivered body blows to his lawyers’ defense, with Eisen explaining, “Hicks provided a gripping account of the impact of the infamous ‘Access Hollywood’ tape on Trump’s campaign, which in turn sets up the so-called hush money payments to Stormy Daniels – who has alleged she had an affair with the former president – that is at the center of the charges in this case.”
According to the legal analyst, her testimony could not have gone much worse, with Eisen elaborating, “Another devastating blow came at the very end of Hicks’ direct testimony when she revealed a stunning trifecta: that, while president, Trump had admitted to her that he knew his then-fixer Michael Cohen had paid Daniels, that Trump attempted to blame Cohen and that Hicks did not believe him.”
Observing the jury as they listened to her, at times, tearful testimony, Eisen claimed the jurors appeared to be eating up every word she uttered and that could make his lawyer’s job even more difficult.
Noting the former president’s inability to keep his eyes open despite the possibility that a guilty verdict could result in jail time, he added, “Asleep or awake, for Trump, Hicks’ testimony was a nightmare. “
It’s a cliché to say that electricity surged through a courtroom — but it did when Hope Hicks took the stand Friday morning for her testimony in the election interference trial of former President Donald Trump.
In an overflow room of the courthouse where members of the public watch the proceedings, audible gasps were reported. Even Hicks, who was the Trump campaign’s press secretary for the 2016 presidential election at issue in the case, seemed to feel the significance of the moment. Experienced, battle-hardened communications veteran that she is, she began her testimony by saying she was nervous. Who from Trump world wouldn’t be when appearing for the prosecution to testify against “the boss” who has a criminal conviction at stake.
Other than Trump and those in his immediate circle, I probably have spent as much time as anyone here in the courtroom discussing the events at issue in the trial with Hicks. That is because as special counsel for the first Trump impeachment, I took her testimony on the alleged 2016 election influence scheme. As it became devastatingly clear in court Friday, she is a Trump loyalist who nevertheless implicated him directly in the alleged wrongdoing in an utterly believable way.
That is why Hicks is so important to prosecutors as they seek to prove their case, and during her testimony, they rapidly got to the heart of the matter. Hicks provided a gripping account of the impact of the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape on Trump’s campaign, which in turn sets up the so-called hush money payments to Stormy Daniels – who has alleged she had an affair with the former president – that is at the center of the charges in this case.
