During her testimony, Trump’s defense appeared to take a hit when Hope Hicks testified that the Trump hush money payments were looked at through the prism of the campaign.
Hicks testified:
Hick discussed the story w/ Trump. He was concerned by it, she says. Concerned by how it was viewed by his wife.
Did he talk about how it would impact campaign? Everything was about the campaign. “How’s it playing” was something he asked all the time.
— Anna Bower (@AnnaBower) May 3, 2024
Trump’s defense is based on the idea that he paid the hush money to protect his family from finding out about his affairs, but Hicks is another witness who has testified that Donald Trump was always concerned with the campaign. In fairness, Trump did not want his wife to find out about the affairs, but there has not been any testimony stating that Trump made the hush money payments for any reason other than the campaign.
However, during cross examination, Trump’s legal team tried to make Hicks seem irrelevant to the case:
Bove ends by asking whether she, working from the White House, had anything to do with business records at a building 200 miles away up in New York City.
Of course her answer is no.
The defense wants to make her seem irrelevant to the nuts and bolts of this case.
— Jose Pagliery (@Jose_Pagliery) May 3, 2024
It can never be known how a jury will interpret a witness, or what jurors are thinking, but Hicks is another of the witnesses who speaks fondly of Trump and doesn’t sound hostile toward him, which undercuts the ex-president’s claims that the trial is full of a bunch of people who are out to get him.
The Manhattan trial does not appear to be one of those cases that will have an a-ha moment like in courtroom dramas that will determine the outcome. The possibility of Trump’s conviction rests on how well and understandably, prosecutors are able to argue that Donald Trump committed crimes.
So far, there has been no slam dunk evidence offered to suggest Trump’s innocence, and Hope Hicks didn’t change that with her testimony.
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