Former Trump aide Hope Hicks testifies he told her to deny Stormy Daniels affair

President Donald Trump with former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks in Washington, March 29, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Barria/ File Photo

By Jack Queen, Brendan Pierson and Andy Sullivan

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Hope Hicks, a former top aide to Donald Trump, testified on Friday that he told her in the final days of the 2016 presidential election to deny that he had a sexual relationship with porn star Stormy Daniels.

Hicks’ testimony gave jurors an inside look at the campaign’s damage-control efforts when Trump faced multiple accusations of unflattering sexual behavior in the waning weeks of his successful White House campaign.

Trump has pleaded not guilty to charges of falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 payment made at that time to Daniels, who was threatening to go public with her story of their 2006 sexual encounter.

Hicks testified that she told Trump four days before the Nov. 8, 2016, election that the Wall Street Journal would publish details of Daniels’ story.

“He wanted to make sure that there was a denial of any kind of relationship,” said Hicks, who served as campaign press secretary.

Prosecutors in the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president argue that the payment to Daniels corrupted the election by suppressing news that could have influenced voters as they decided whether to back the Republican Trump or his then-Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

Prosecutors say Trump falsified records to cover up election-law and tax-law violations, which elevates the 34 counts he faces from a misdemeanor to a felony punishable by up to four years in prison.

Trump, the Republican candidate for president again this year, sat expressionless at the defendants’ table during the testimony by Hicks, the first person who worked for Trump’s campaign to appear as a witness in the 11-day-old trial.

Hicks, who had been working for Trump’s business, told jurors she was surprised by his entry into politics in 2015 and thought he was joking when he asked her to be the campaign press secretary.

“I wasn’t sure if I should take it seriously,” she said.

Hicks said the campaign was rattled by the public release of an audio recording from the “Access Hollywood” TV show in which Trump bragged about grabbing women’s genitals.

She said Trump was upset, but also played down the comments.

“Mr. Trump felt like this wasn’t good, but it was also just like two guys talking, locker-room talk,” she testified.

Jurors saw evidence of efforts to craft a denial when the Wall Street Journal asked whether Trump had had an affair with former Playboy model Karen McDougal.

Hicks said she discussed contacting Rupert Murdoch, who was then chairman of News Corp, the Journal’s parent company, to buy some time for a response. Trump ultimately said he wanted to write his own statement, she said.

The 12 jurors and six alternates have yet to hear from the main players in the case, including Daniels and Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen, who arranged the payment.

The defense argues the hush money payment was made to spare Trump’s family embarrassment, not to protect his presidential campaign.

Earlier in the day, the judge overseeing the trial told Trump that a gag order that bars him from commenting about witnesses and jurors would not prevent him from testifying, as Trump had told reporters on Thursday.

“I want to stress to Mr. Trump: you have an absolute right to testify at trial,” Justice Juan Merchan said.

Trump said his legal team would try to overturn the gag order, which bars him from making public comments about jurors, witnesses, and families of the judge and prosecutors if those statements are meant to interfere with the case.

Merchan fined Trump $9,000 on Tuesday for violating the order and signaled on Thursday he may impose more fines for what prosecutors say are further violations. Merchan has said Trump could be jailed if he does not change his ways.

Trump says the case is an attempt by Democrats to undercut his chances of defeating Democratic President Joe Biden in the coming Nov. 5 presidential election.

The case features sordid allegations of adultery and secret payoffs, but it is widely seen as less consequential than the other three criminal prosecutions Trump faces and perhaps the only one to be tried before the November election.

The others charge him with trying to overturn his 2020 presidential defeat and mishandling classified documents after leaving office. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all of those also.

Still, a guilty verdict could hurt Trump’s presidential bid, Reuters/Ipsos polling has found.

(Reporting by Jack Queen and Brendan Pierson in New York and Andy Sullivan in Washington; Editing by Howard Goller)