Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Just prior to court breaking for lunch, we also saw emails Hope Hicks drafted to respond to the Wall Street Journal story.

Among the options: “We deny each and every accusation,” and “We have no knowledge of this false story”.

Hicks says she consulted with Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen about how to respond to the allegations.

Ultimately, Trump didn’t want to use the statements they had crafted, he wanted to write his own, Hicks told the court.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Before the lunch break, prosecutors showed an email Hope Hicks received from yet another reporter, Michael Rothfeld.

It was titled: “Deadline request from the Wall Street Journal”.

This is the first time she learned about former Playboy model Karen McDougal, Hicks testifies.

Hicks was with Trump on his plane, on their way to Ohio. It was four days until the 2016 election.

The WSJ had been investigating the “catch and kill” deal that AMI, publisher of the National Enquirer, made with McDougal to purchase her story about an alleged affair with Trump.

Hicks said Trump reached out to David Pecker, the boss at AMI, and Michael Cohen for more information.

Phew.

After an hour of dramatic testimony from Hope Hicks, we're breaking for lunch.

How the prosecution is trying to use Hicks to connect the dotspublished at 17:57 British Summer Time 3 May

17:57 BST 3 May

Nada Tawfik
Reporting from court

Image source, Reuters

Donald Trump does not look happy as he listens aptly and often confers with his lawyers.

Hope Hicks hasn’t been on the stand for long, and while her descriptions of Trump might sound complimentary, they are devastating for his case.

She described her former boss as someone who easily multitasked and approved every statement or action on his behalf because he was “better than anybody at communications and branding”.

She also outlined how he was deeply in tune with how he was portrayed in press coverage, and often shared articles with aides.

Prosecutors are trying to establish that everything done during the campaign was at Trump’s direction, which would include the hush-money payment.

Hicks also directly confirmed other parts of their narrative, that the campaign was in crisis mode over the Access Hollywood tape and was concerned about how it would affect him with female voters.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Image source, Getty Images

We’re finally getting to Stormy Daniels.

Hope Hicks is asked how Donald Trump knows the adult film star.

She says she first heard him talk about Daniels on a plane.

“Mr Trump and some of the security guys on the plane were telling a story about the celebrity golf tournament… and her name came up,” Hicks says.

Daniels alleges she and Trump had sex after meeting at a celebrity golf tournament in Nevada in 2006. Trump has vehemently denied this.

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Hicks continues to walk us through the fallout from the Access Hollywood tape.

Trump earned condemnation from Republican politicians and was asked about it at the first presidential debate, Hope Hicks tells the court.

She testifies that the tape was a "damaging development" for the Trump campaign.

But of course, a few weeks later, he would pull off a shocking upset and win the presidency.

Hicks says that Trump's Twitter account was "definitely" an important part of his campaign, and he either wrote his own tweets, or someone from his team would post tweets that he had approved.

Here's why prosecutors asked about the Access Hollywood tapepublished at 17:33 British Summer Time 3 May

17:33 BST 3 May

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Introducing the Washington Post reporters’ email serves two purposes for prosecutors.

1. It includes a full description of what Donald Trump said on the Access Hollywood tape. Prosecutors can’t play the tape itself – the judge has forbidden it because it could prejudice the jury – but the text of the email is a way to get a tape transcript into the record.
2. Prosecutors are trying to show the impact the Access Hollywood tape had within the Trump campaign.

Remember, they claim Trump had a hush-money payment made to Stormy Daniels after she alleged that they had sex - which he has always denied.

The allegation being made in court is that Trump was afraid that if Stormy Daniels' claims went public, his campaign would be further damaged, when he was already on thin ice because of the Access Hollywood tape.

Prosecutors claim Trump was trying to interfere in the 2016 election by hiding key information from voters.

On the stand, Hicks acknowledges that she believed the tape was a "damaging development" and a "crisis" for the campaign.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Hicks is now talking about what a massive impact the Access Hollywood story had on the US news cycle.

She notes that there was a Category 4 hurricane that hit the East Coast around the same time, but nobody would ever remember where or when.

“It was all Trump, all the time for the next 36 hours.”

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

“I was concerned, very concerned,” she tells the court. “There were a lot of layers to it,” she adds.

"It complicated where we were trying to go with the campaign. It was pulling us backwards in a way that was going to be hard to overcome.”

When asked how Donald Trump reacted to the tape, Hicks says she thinks Trump felt the recording was “pretty standard stuff for two guys chatting with each other”.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Hicks is providing the court with the behind-the-scenes details of how the Trump campaign responded to the infamous Access Hollywood tape.

Hicks says she was "a little stunned" to hear the tape, adding she had "the sense that this was going to be a massive story".

Upon receiving an email from the Washington Post reporter with the transcript of the tape, Hicks says she forwarded it to key campaign aides.

She said in the email: “1) Need to hear the tape to be sure. 2) deny, deny, deny”.

She tells the court it was a “reflex” to write “deny, deny, deny”.

Campaign aides then had a meeting, during which they shared the email with Trump, Hicks says.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

We are now in the events surrounding the Access Hollywood tape’s release in October 2016.

The Washington Post got a hold of the tape, which caught Trump on a hot mic in the 2000s having an extremely lewd conversation about women.

The reporter on the story, David Fahrenthold, emailed Hope Hicks asking for comment from Trump’s presidential campaign before publication.

Prosecutors show a copy of the email the reporter sent to Hicks.

"URGENT WashPost query" the subject line reads.

She looks nervous as she reviews the email that she testifies was her first warning about the bombshell tape.

Hicks says that she forwarded it to several top Trump campaign staffers, including Jason Miller, Kellyanne Conway, and Steve Bannon.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

We’re now getting to Trump’s relationship with David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer tabloid magazine.

Pecker was involved in the hush-money payment to playboy model Karen McDougal to buy her story of an alleged affair with Trump, he testified last week.

Hicks says she’d seen David Pecker in Trump Tower.

She also recalls phone calls between him and Trump, including one in which Trump congratulated Pecker on a story about Trump's political opponent Ben Carson committing medical malpractice.

The article was titled: “Bungling surgeon Ben Carson left sponge in patient’s brain!”

“This is Pulitzer worthy,” Trump told Pecker, according to Hicks.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Hicks is asked about when Trump asked her to serve as press secretary for his campaign.

She says when Trump first suggested the position to her, she thought it was a joke as she had “no experience and worked at the company, not at the campaign, so I didn’t take it very seriously”.

But she says she eventually spent so much time working on the campaign that she eventually became his press secretary.

There was no communications team at that point in 2015, she says.

"It was just me and Mr Trump, who is better than anybody at communications and branding," she adds.

Once he was in the White House, Hicks was known as a member of Trump's inner circle, and was at his side for the most heated moments of his presidency.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Hicks is being quizzed about her dealings with Donald Trump.

When she worked with him on his campaign, she says she “probably met with him every day”.

Hicks has a glowing review of the former president: “He’s a very hard worker,” she says. “He’s always doing many things at once.”

She has kind words to say about the Trump Organization, too: “It’s a very big and successful company, but it’s really run like a small family business in certain ways,” she says.

Image source, Getty Images

Kayla Epstein
Reporting from court

Hicks gives the court a bit of her biography.

She testifies that she joined the Trump Organization shortly before Trump decided to run for president.

At first, she worked on marketing materials for real estate, hospitality, and entertainment products, and helped publicise various properties like his golf courses.

Hicks notes she hasn’t been in direct communication with Trump since summer 2022, and has no professional relationship with him at the moment.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Hicks is answering the questions succinctly and softly. On two occasions, she is told to lean closer to the microphone.

“This is very different now that I can hear myself on the microphone,” she laughs, seeming anxious.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Hicks, dressed in a black blazer and blue shirt, has just entered the courtroom. Trump looks in her direction as she walks to the stand.

“I’m really nervous,” she says.

Madeline Halpert
Reporting from court

Image source, Getty Images

Hope Hicks - a former White House aide - is our next big witness in the trial.

A former press secretary for Trump’s 2016 campaign, she could play a pivotal role in the case as one of his former close confidantes.

After her stint as press secretary, Hicks served as communications director for two stints during Trump’s presidency.

Her name has already come up several times during the first three weeks of this trial.

She was present at a 2015 meeting between Trump, Michael Cohen and former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, according to testimony. It was during this meeting that Pecker agreed to suppress negative stories about Trump - including alleged affairs - to help boost his campaign, Pecker testified.

Hicks was also privy to the details of the hush-money payment to playboy model Karen McDougal, Pecker said.

Hope Hicks will shortly take the stand. She was Donald Trump's press secretary during his 2016 election campaign.