Former President Donald Trump will have another key witness testifying at his criminal hush money trial: Hope Hicks.
A former White House communications director and Trump aide, Hicks has previously testified in a grand jury investigation about Trump’s alleged 2020 election interference and said she will testify at the Manhattan trial, according to the New York Times.
Trump’s trial is slated to begin with jury selection on April 15 and is centered on claims that he allegedly used his former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen to hide an alleged years-old affair with porn star Stormy Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, during the 2016 presidential election.
Hicks, who was once Trump’s campaign press secretary, met with Manhattan prosecutors who brought the case against Trump for several hours last year, according to the New York Times report.
A lawyer for Hicks said in 2019 that she was unaware of the hush money payment to Daniels until it became public. But an FBI agent who had been investigating Cohen wrote in an affidavit in Cohen’s federal criminal case that he believed Hicks was privy to the plans aimed at blocking Daniels making public her alleged 2006 affair with Trump.
Trump has denied the affair with Daniels and pleaded not guilty last April to the 34-count indictment brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat.
In addition to Hicks, Cohen and Daniels are scheduled to be star witnesses during the trial, which is expected to last between six and eight weeks and will be held each day except for Wednesdays throughout that period. Trump is slated to be present for the duration of the trial, per courtroom rules for defendants.
Trump last month sought to keep Cohen and Daniels from testifying on the basis that their testimonies could not be considered truthful, but New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan declined that effort.
Also on Monday, prosecutors requested that Merchan clarify whether a limited gag order he issued last week applies to the judge’s family and relatives of Bragg.
The request in a new filing follows a letter to the court on Friday, in which Bragg’s office said Trump’s recent social media criticism of the judge’s daughter has prompted grave safety concerns.
Trump attorneys Todd Blanche and Susan Necheles maintain their client should be “permitted to speak on these issues” and that his recent comments about the judge’s daughter are “not intended to materially interfere with these proceedings or cause anyone harm.”
The defense also sought permission to file a motion requesting Merchan recuse himself from the trial, citing his daughter being an “executive and partner at Authentic Campaigns, Inc. As recently as February and March 2024.”
“Authentic has used social media to market its connections to President Biden and Vice President Harris while deriding President Trump,” the attorneys added.
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Merchan’s gag order as it stands blocks Trump from making public statements about witnesses, lawyers other than Bragg, members of court staff and their families, and prospective jurors. The order does not specifically mention the judge and his family or clarify whether Bragg’s family should be protected.
The Washington Examiner contacted Hicks for comment.
