Former Trump aide Hope Hicks testifies in hush money trial

Attorney Emil Bove asks Hope Hicks whether in her experience “it’s not uncommon” for a campaign to work with the media?

Hicks smiled and answered, “I wouldn’t have a job if that wasn’t a regular practice.”

The former president exchanged a look and a smirk with his other attorney, Todd Blanche, when she said this.

Hicks is sounding more composed now with her answers as Bove has her asking about her work experience.

Several jurors are looking down as the cross-examination continues.

Hope Hicks is testifying that then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen tried to “insert himself” into the 2016 presidential campaign.

Hicks said Cohen “wasn’t supposed to be on the campaign in any official capacity.”

Hicks says the attorney “wasn’t looped in on the day-to-day of campaign strategy,” but he would go “rogue” and take actions that were unauthorized by Trump’s team, frustrating the campaign.

Trump attorney Emil Bove is asking Hope Hicks about her relationship with Trump.

“You felt that you had his trust and respect?” Bove asks.

“His trust and respect, yes,” Hicks said, her voice still quivering.

Bove confirmed again that Rhona Graff had a similar relationship of mutual respect. “I really looked up to Rhona,” Hicks said.

“Sorry about that,” Hope Hicks says, as testimony resumes following a brief pause after the former Trump aide appeared to grow emotional.

“If you need a minute, just let me know,” Trump attorney Emil Bove responds.

Hope Hicks is back on the stand. The bailiff is refilling her water cup.

The jury has also returned to the courtroom.

There’s been a brief pause in the courtroom proceedings. The jury left the room.

Hope Hicks started tearing up after the direct examination finished and as Donald Trump’s attorney Emil Bove took the podium.

As soon as Bove began, he asked her, “I want to talk to you about your time at the Trump Organization.”

Hicks appeared to have become overwhelmed by the moment.

She appeared to be trying to hold back tears and asked for a minute as she reached into her purse. Hicks was audibly sniffling with tears.

She left the courtroom with her attorney and the jury was led out.

As she left, Hicks moved her hair to one side of her neck, lowered her head and quickened her pace slightly as she passed Trump.

Trump remained seated the whole time.

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo asks Hope Hicks whether the idea that Michael Cohen made the $130,000 payment on his own was consistent with her interactions with him.

Trump attorney Emil Bove will begin cross-examining Hope Hicks.

Hope Hicks says she was skeptical about Michael Cohen’s motives for making the payment.

“I didn’t know Michael to be an especially charitable person or selfless person,” she says, noting that Cohen is “the kind of person who seeks credit.”

Hicks said it was “out of character” for Cohen.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche is whispering in Trump’s ear covering his mouth as Hope Hicks is testifying about how Trump communicated about the payment.

Trump nods and shrugs in response.

Matthew Colangelo asks Hope Hicks if, to her knowledge, Donald Trump communicated directly about the payment.

The instance: The morning after Michael Cohen gave a statement to The New York Times that he had, in fact, made the payment without Trump’s knowledge.

Prosecutors are showing the jury and the court the Wall Street Journal story from 2018 about the hush money payment and a statement from a “White House official.”

Hicks says she was not the White House official anonymously quoted in the story. “I can’t say for sure” who it was, Hicks says, saying she believes it was Hogan Gidley, a former White House spokesperson.

Hicks is looking at a document presented to her to refresh her recollection about a conversation with then-Trump attorney Michael Cohen about the $130,000 hush money payment made to Stormy Daniels.

Cohen told Hicks that the story of the payment wasn’t true, that no payment had been made, that no relationship had transpired, and that he had documentation to prove no payment had been made.

Hicks asked Trump how he would like the team to respond to the story.

Some context: It’s not clear what document prosecutors showed Hicks to jog her memory — documents used solely for that purpose don’t have to be shown to jurors because they don’t have to be entered into evidence.

Hope Hicks says she spoke to Trump about the news coverage after Anderson Cooper’s interview with Karen McDougal but doesn’t remember speaking to Trump about David Pecker at that point.

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo asks about an interview Karen McDougal did with CNN’s Anderson Cooper. She was aware of the interview and watched the interview.

Hicks has no recollection of speaking to then-National Enquirer publisher David Pecker after that interview.

“To my knowledge … I did not speak to Mr. Pecker. I did speak to Mr. Trump,” she said.

Hicks left the White House five days later, though she later rejoined.

The day Karen McDougal sued AMI, the publisher of the National Enquirer, Madeline Westerhaul texted Hope Hicks:

“Hey. The president wants to know if you called David Pecker again?”  

Hicks says she has no recollection of speaking to Pecker. She says she doesn’t believe she called him but doesn’t remember.

Judge Juan Merchan overruled an objection about a question regarding Hope Hicks’ awareness Karen McDougal suing American Media Inc. to be released from her non-disclosure agreement.

Hicks didn’t remember that independently, but said she recently had her memory refreshed about the lawsuit.

Madeleine Westerhout also sat in that area outside the Oval Office with Hope Hicks, she testifies.

Westerhout worked as Trump’s executive assistant at the time.

Some context: Westerhout is expected as a potential witness later in this case.

Hope Hicks has turned to the jurors to explain what the outer Oval Office looks like at the White House.

She is describing directly to the jurors, making eye contact briefly.

She smiles slightly, and shifts her tone to informational and conversational. The jurors look directly at her.

“It’s a very small space. Very small,” she says of the area where she worked.

Hope Hicks was appointed Director of Strategic Communications when she joined the White House.

She worked closely with Trump on media opportunities and spoke regularly to him during that time, she testifies.

Eventually, Hicks says she became White House communications director.

Hope Hicks is now being asked about her time at the White House and Fox Corporation.

Hicks confirms she had a role on the presidential transition and then worked in the White House when Trump took office.

Asked whether the Wall Street Journal story would be an impact on Trump’s presidential campaign, Hicks says: “Everything we talked about in the context of this time period and this time frame was about whether or not there was an impact on the campaign.”

Noting how close to the 2016 election they were when the Wall Street Journal’s reporting on Karen McDougal emerged, Hicks says the Trump campaign was just hoping to move forward.

Hope Hicks says she asked for David Pecker’s number from Michael Cohen.

She had one but Donald Trump thought it was the wrong number.

Hicks wanted the number because Trump wanted to speak to the publisher of the National Enquirer, she said.

Hope Hicks says she discussed the article with Trump.

“He was concerned about the story. He was concerned about how it would be viewed by his wife, and he wanted me to make sure that the newspapers weren’t delivered to his residence that morning,” she says.

Michael Cohen texted Hope Hicks saying he had a statement from Stormy Daniels.

“Even CNN not talking about it. No one believes it and if necessary, I have a statement by Storm denying everything and contradicting the other porn stars statement. I wouldn’t use it now or even discuss it with him as no one is talking about this or cares!,” Cohen said.

When asked about the text, Hicks said, “I didn’t follow up and say, ‘what are you talking about, what statement.’ I didn’t know what he was talking about and I didn’t want to know.”

Hicks said of the coverage of the story, “It wasn’t being picked up in the same way as the way the Access Hollywood tape was. It wasn’t wall-to-wall coverage.”

Trump is looking at the screen in front of him in the courtroom as Hope Hicks reads her 2016 text exchanges with then-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen.

Prosecutors questioned former Trump staffer Hope Hicks about a Wall Street Journal story that ran four days before the 2016 election and threw the campaign into crisis.

That story broke the news that the publisher of the National Enquirer agreed to pay $150,000 to former Playboy model Karen McDougal for her story about an alleged affair with Trump a decade earlier. The paper then declined to publish the story, a process known as “catch and kill.”

At the time, Hicks told the Journal that the claim of the affair was “totally untrue.”

Prosecutors are attempting to establish what was happening within Trump campaign headquarters in the hectic weeks before the election. The WSJ story ran just weeks after the “Access Hollywood” tape, which caught Trump making lewd statements about women, was released.

Hope Hicks giggles and laughs when reading an ironic typo included in the text.

She eventually responded later that night, sending Michael Cohen the article from the Wall Street Journal.

Hicks said: “I agree with most of that.”

She added: 

The jury sees texts Michael Cohen sent to Hope Hicks with no response.

Hope Hicks is now reading through a catalog of texts between herself and Michel Cohen.

In her 2016 statement to the Wall Street Journal, Hicks is quoted as saying it was “absolutely, unequivocally” untrue that Trump had a relationship with Daniels.

Asked in court if Trump told her to say that, Hicks replies, “Yes.”

“What I told to the Wall Street Journal is what was told to me,” Hicks says of the denial she gave about the Daniels allegations.

The jurors are following along, reading the exhibits on screens in front of them. They look at the attorney for each question and then turn for her response.

Prosecutor is asking Hope Hicks to look at her grand jury testimony to see if it reminds her of what she told prosecutors previously.

Hick says “the denial was from Mr. Trump for both women, that’s very clear.” She adds that she doesn’t have a specific memory of Trump telling her “‘say we have no knowledge of any of this.’”

“These are hectic conversations. There’s a lot of people weighing in,” Hicks explains.

Hope Hicks touches her chest and looks up as if trying to find the words when asked to quote Donald Trump or attribute his statements directly.

Hicks’ body is turned towards the jury and she is angling her head towards the prosecutor when she speaks.

She is smiling nervously through her statements as she tries to explain that she can’t remember verbatim statements.

Hope Hicks is now reading the denial she gave to the Wall Street Journal for the story.

At the time she told the reporter that the claim of the affair was “totally untrue.”

Hicks is reluctant to quote or attribute anything to Donald Trump as verbatim.

Prosecutors are now showing Hope Hicks and the jury the November 4, 2016, story from the Wall Street Journal.

She said Reince Priebus was in the car with her and Trump at the time of the call with Michael Cohen.

They were traveling to a rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania, she said.

Prosecutors have resumed their questions for key witness Hope Hicks, picking up a line of inquiries around a 2016 article in the Wall Street Journal about Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels.

“I believe I heard Mr. Trump speaking to Mr. Cohen shortly after the story was published,” Hicks testified.

Hicks, who has said she is nervous during the testimony, is wringing her hands as she says this.

“There was nothing memorable” about the call, she said.

Remember: Before the break, the former Trump aide was testifying about the November, 4, 2016, article, which reported that the National Enquirer had paid McDougal for the story of her alleged affair with Donald Trump, but had not published the story.

The piece also referenced Daniels, and that she had abruptly cut off talks with ABC to share her own story. It highlighted that the same lawyer represented both women.

Attorney Todd Blanche was whispering to Donald Trump while Hope Hicks walked past in the courtroom.

Hope Hicks walked past Trump as she made her way back to the witness box.

She did not look in his direction. Her right hand was clenched in a fist, and her left was holding a handbag.

Trump looked up at her slightly as she stepped into the box.

Donald Trump walked down the center aisle of the courtroom and smirked at someone sitting on the left side of the galley.

Judge Juan Merchan is on the bench.

A nervous Hope Hicks, Donald Trump’s former campaign press secretary, took the stand and testified about her interactions with the former president, AMI chief David Pecker, and Michael Cohen before prosecutor Matthew Colangelo dove into the fallout surrounding the bombshell “Access Hollywood” tape.

Hicks, the prosecution’s ninth witness, testified for nearly 90 minutes before the lunch break. She did not look at Trump for most of that time, glancing briefly at him during one line of inquiry about his social media behavior during the 2016 campaign, but otherwise keep her focus on the prosecutor and the jury, during her questioning. She confirmed she was testifying under subpoena. She has no professional relationship with him now.

Here’s what she has said so far:

Trump organization is run like a family business: Hicks began testifying about the Trump Organization, which she claimed was run like a “a small family business in certain ways” despite being a “big and successful company.” She added, “everybody that works there in some sense reports to Mr. Trump,” whom she referred to as such for the duration of her testimony. 

Hicks doesn’t recall being at the Pecker-Trump meeting at Trump Tower 

Hicks becomes aware of “Access Hollywood” tape: “This was a crisis”

When Hicks first heard of Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels

Trump very involved in media responses throughout the campaign: “It was just me and Mr. Trump who is better than anybody at communications and branding,” she said. Hicks said Trump was “very involved” in his campaign and weighed in on media responses. “He knew what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it. We were all just following his lead. He deserves the credit for the different messages that the campaign focused on in terms of the agenda that he put forth,” Hicks testified.

Hicks also testified that Trump posted all of his own tweets during the campaign, or a staffer would post things Trump personally approved. Tweets that were entered into court earlier in the day were reviewed by Hicks under her testimony. This includes Trump’s attacks on the late Sen. John McCain and his denial of the allegations involving women.

CNN’s Kristina Sgueglia contributed to this report

Photo Illustration by Alberto Mier/CNN/Getty Images

During today’s questioning of Hope Hicks, prosecutors have asked Donald Trump’s former aide about how he and his inner circle reacted to the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape in October 2016.

This is one of several key moments that are central to the hush money case against Trump that Hicks has been asked about today. Read up on CNN’s timeline of events below:

See the full timeline. 

Hope Hicks is questioned by prosecutor Matthew Colangelo on Friday, May 3.

Cameras are not allowed inside the Manhattan courtroom when proceedings are underway, but sketch artists are capturing the scenes from Donald Trump’s hush money trial.

Sketches from Friday show testimony from Hope Hicks, who was once one of Donald Trump’s most trusted aides, and Douglas Daus, a digital evidence analyst who works for the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

Former President Donald Trump watches as Hope Hicks testifies on Friday.

Hicks was once one of Trump's biggest confidantes.

Witness Douglas Daus is questioned by Trump attorney Emil Bove on Friday.

Trump watches as Daus is questioned on Friday.

Hope Hicks, once a longtime trusted aide in Donald Trump’s inner circle, is testifying Friday in the New York hush money trial after being subpoenaed.

As CNN reported previously, Hicks appeared before the grand jury last year before Trump was indicted, as did Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway. Hicks was Trump’s press secretary during the campaign and could shed light on what was happening inside the political operation in the final weeks before the 2016 election, as Cohen says he was paying off adult film star Stormy Daniels to remain quiet about an alleged affair that Trump worried could upend his presidential campaign.

Trump allegedly reimbursed Cohen after he took office and has since been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide the true nature of those payments. The former president has pleaded not guilty and denied the affair.

Hicks has a long shared history with Trump, starting with her time working in communications for the Trump Organization and was one of the first staffers to join his 2016 campaign. During Trump’s presidency, Hicks eventually rose to become White House communication director and was one of the longest-lasting aides in a White House that was frequently marked by a series of acrimonious departures.

She thrived in an environment where loyalty was paramount, consistently defending Trump amid criticism, and the president nicknamed her “Hopey.” Hicks’ proximity to Trump has at times put her under a media microscope.

Read more about Hicks and her relationship with Trump.

Hope Hicks, once part of the Trump inner circle, is testifying for the prosecution on the hectic time at his campaign after the “Access Hollywood” tape was released in October 2016.

Here’s what CNN analysts have had to say about her strength as a witness in the case.

“Hope Hicks was the ultimate insider…If and when she says something that’s helpful for the prosecution’s case, it’s going to hit extra hard in favor of the prosecution because you can’t say this is a person who has a gripe or a beef with Donald Trump.”

“I’ve actually been skeptical that Hope Hicks makes a lot of sense for the prosecution …Yes, Hope is a consummate Insider. She was very close to Donald Trump, especially in the first campaign. But this is a woman who is not partisan…She is fiercely loyal to Donald Trump even after January 6.”

“Hope Hicks seems to be a likable witness … It will be very interesting to see how the defense handles her on cross-examination. A woman who walks into a courtroom and says ‘I’m really nervous to be here’ — I don’t know that they want to go after her very harshly. That could backfire.”

“This is a very significant witness. She hasn’t spoken to him in two years. He’s not paying for her attorney. She’s there because of a subpoena …This is not somebody the jury’s going to say, ‘Well, I guess there was $130,000 being paid out that he knew nothing about.’ What I’m waiting to hear from her though is, what came after the campaign? Why was there the concern still to pay and cover up or falsify a record? That’s the key.”

Trump did not react as Hope Hicks walked past him as she exited the courtroom for the lunch break. Defense attorney Todd Blanche was whispering in his ear.

Trump and lawyers are now leaving the courtroom.

The jury is leaving the courtroom, and court is breaking for lunch.

Hicks says a Wall Street Journal reporter told her on the phone that Stormy Daniels would also be mentioned in a forthcoming story about Karen McDougal.

She told Trump about it, and he “wanted to know the context, and he wanted to make sure that there was a denial of any kind of relationship,” Hicks testifies.

“I felt the point of the story was that the National Enquirer paid a woman for her story and never published it,” Hicks says.

“It wasn’t necessarily about accusations of, you know, certain behavior,” she added, pausing slightly before finishing her sentence.

For context: The November 4, 2016, story references that McDougal lawyer Keith Davidson also represented Stormy Daniels, and that Daniels had been in discussion with ABC about potentially publicly disclosing her story.

The article said Daniels eventually cut off contact with the network without telling her story.

Hope Hicks testified that when she spoke with Donald Trump they called David Pecker.

The jury is seeing four draft responses Hope Hicks sent to Michael Cohen to review.

He responded: “instead…say: These accusations are completely untrue and just the latest despicable attempt by the liberal media and the clinton machine to distract the public from the FBI’s ongoing criminal investigation into secretary clinton and her closest associates.”

Hope Hicks is describing a call with David Pecker, during which he explained the Karen McDougal deal.

“I asked what was going on. Why was I receiving this email and he explained that Karen McDougal was paid for magazine covers and fitness columns and that it was all very legitimate and that was what the contract was for,” Hicks said of her call with Pecker.

Hicks said she had “never” had any discussions with Pecker before that date about McDougal.

Trump is less engaged with Hope Hicks’ testimony now as she gets into the Karen McDougal questions, sitting back in his chair with his eyes closed.

Hope Hicks is testifying that she called Michael Cohen because she knew he had a relationship with David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer.

She also called Pecker’s office, she says.

She says she thinks she called Cohen before Pecker, and he prompted her to call Pecker for more information.

“Michael sort of feigned like he didn’t know what I was talking about,” she says.

Hope Hicks says she forwarded the Wall Street Journal email to Jared Kushner because of his role on the campaign and also because of his relationship with Rupert Murdoch.

Hicks says she hoped to “buy a little extra time.”

Hope Hicks got the email about the Wall Street Journal story on Trump’s plane as they were landing in Ohio for a rally, she said.

The email laid out the story about American Media Inc. buying Karen McDougal’s story of an affair with Trump.

The WSJ reporter asked if Trump had an affair with McDougal and was he or anyone close to him aware of or involved in the contract between McDougal and AMI.

Hicks says she believed that she mentioned the email to Trump before his rally because she was worried she wouldn’t have enough time to respond otherwise.

The email is being displayed for the jury and most jurors are looking at their monitor.

Hope Hicks says she had heard of Stormy Daniels one other time before Daniels was mentioned in the November 4, 2016, Wall Street Journal story.

Hicks says that security guys on Donald Trump’s plane in 2015 were telling a story about a celebrity golf tournament and some of the participants, and Daniels’ name came up.

Hope Hicks says she first heard of Karen McDougal on November 4, 2016, when contacted by the the Wall Street Journal.

Prosecutors are now showing Donald Trump’s tweets they had introduced into evidence previously, including his attack on the late Sen. John McCain and his denial of the allegations involving women.

Hope Hicks is reading the tweets of Trump’s denials.

Hope Hicks is now being asked about Trump’s Twitter account. Twitter is now known as X.

Asked whether he considered it an important part of his campaign, she says “definitely.”

During the campaign, Trump posted all of his own tweets or a staffer would post things that Trump personally approved.

Prosecutors are now playing a video from a October 2016 rally in North Carolina where Trump denies these reports.

Asked if Trump was concerned these reports could hurt his standing with voters, Hicks replies, “Yes.”

Hope Hicks, once considered one of Donald Trump’s closest confidantes and most trusted aides, has been testifying about the moment the “Access Hollywood” tape of Trump using crude terms to describe treatment of women was released in October 2016.

The October 9, 2016 debate, moderated by CNN’s Anderson Cooper and ABC News’ Martha Raddatz, is now being discussed.

Hope Hicks says the “Access Hollywood” tape was raised during the debate as one of the first questions.

After the debate, Hicks confirms there were reports regarding Donald Trump’s behavior with women.

The night after the debate, she says she was contacted by The New York Times. Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo stops her from describing the story.

As Hope Hicks has continued to testify, Donald Trump has more frequently engaged with his attorneys.

He appears increasingly agitated as he fires off comments to his attorney Emil Bove and Todd Blanche with facial expressions.

Hope Hicks says she reached out to Michael Cohen to run down a rumor she had heard about another tape “that would be problematic for the campaign.”

“There was no such tape, regardless, but he chased that down for me,” Hicks says.

Judge Juan Merchan sustains the Trump team’s objection.

Donald Trump was writing something on a notepad while Emil Bove and Todd Blanche were at the bench. He showed it to Bove when he returned.

Hope Hicks is looking at the jury and prosecutor as she testifies today.

She has not looked at Trump.

More on the jury: Jurors appear to be very attentive. They are following the questions.

There’s been an objection, and attorneys are now at the judge’s bench.

Donald Trump is leaning over and chatting with his attorney Susan Necheles while lawyers are at side bar.

Prosecutors put up Mitch McConnell’s statement on the “Access Hollywood” tape on the screen.

Trump leaned in to look at the statement briefly.

Then, prosecutors showed Mitt Romney’s statement. Trump slightly shook his head and did not look toward Romney’s statement on the screen.

Hope Hicks is asked who released statements criticizing Donald Trump after the “Access Hollywood” tape.

She raises former House Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. Mitt Romney.

Trump bobbed his head when she said the Republican lawmakers’ names.

Donald Trump is leaning back now with his eyes closed. His attorneys Emil Bove and Todd Blanche are passing notes between him.

Hope Hicks was just asked about the media coverage surrounding the “Access Hollywood” tape.

Hicks bit her lip and replied, “It was intense.”

She said coverage of the tape knocked news of a category 4 hurricane out of the news cycle.

“lt was all Trump all the time for the next 36 hours,” Hicks testified.

Prosecutors are now playing the video Trump released that evening for Hope Hicks.

She says she was present as the video was prepared.

Trump is engaged, watching Hicks on the screen and directly on the stand. He did appear to look at the statement on the monitor while it was shown to the jury.

Hicks is reading the initial campaign statement for the jury. It’s also displayed on a screen in the courtroom.

Trump was involved with the campaign response to the “Access Hollywood” tape, Hope Hicks testifies.

“He always liked to weigh in on responses,” she says.

Hicks is shown a copy of the first statement the campaign put out on the tape. Trump leaned forward to look at the monitor in front of him as it was displayed.

Hope Hicks says Donald Trump “didn’t want to offend anybody.”

“I think he felt like it was pretty standard stuff for two guys chatting with each other,” she adds about the “Access Hollywood” tape.

Hope Hicks says that “in that moment,” she was not concerned about the impact the “Access Hollywood” tape would have on female voters — but the concern crossed her mind maybe a few hours later or the next day.

“Certainly, eventually, that was something that was raised,” she says.

“I was a little stunned,” Hope Hicks said of her first reaction to watching the “Access Hollywood” tape.

Trump leaned over in the courtroom to his lawyer Todd Blanche to say something as she said this.

“It’s hard to describe, but it was definitely concerning. I had a good sense this was going to be a massive story,” Hicks testified.

“This was a damaging development” to the campaign, Hicks said.

She said there was consensus among the group: “The tape was damaging. This was a crisis.”

Hope Hicks is recalling Trump’s reaction to the “Access Hollywood” tape.

“He said that didn’t sound like something he would say,” Hicks says, noting Trump asked to see the actual tape.

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo asks if Donald Trump was upset when he saw the “Access Hollywood” tape.

“Yes. Yeah he was,” hicks said.

Trump asked to see the actual tape, Hicks says. She adds she can’t remember whether she saw the tape before the Washington Post published its story or not.

Hope Hicks says Trump’s campaign team was on the 25th floor of Trump Tower in a conference room at the time, prepping for a debate.

She recalled Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Jared Kushner and Jason Miller were there with others at the time.

She recalls seeing Jeff Sessions that day but doesn’t think he was in the conference room at that time.

Hope Hicks is reading over an email she sent with notes to several senior leaders of the Trump campaign after the Washington Post requested a comment about the “Access Hollywood” tape.

“FLAGGING,” Hicks wrote in the email, with two notes: “1) Need to hear the tape, to be sure. 2) Deny, deny, deny.”

On the stand, Hicks is rubbing her chin as she says, “deny, deny, deny.” She confirmed she wrote this with a laugh, calling it a “reflex.”

“Strategy number two was going to be a little more difficult,” she said, chuckling on the stand again.

Hope Hicks says she forwarded the Washington Post email seeking comment to several senior leaders of the campaign, including Jason Miller, David Bossie, Kellyanne Conway, and Steve Bannon.

Asked what her first reaction was to receiving the email from the Washington Post reporter, Hope Hicks says, “I was concerned. Very concerned.”

“There was a lot at play,” she testifies.

Hicks is being shown a copy of the email she received from the Washington Post reporter who was seeking comment after the release of the “Access Hollywood” tape.

The email has been accepted into evidence and is being shown to everyone now.

Hicks smiles as she recalls she forwarded the email to others on the campaign.

The subject line reads “URGENT WashPost query.”

“I have an extremely urgent request for you today,” the email from David Fahrenthold on October 7, 2016, reads.

The jury is also being shown the transcript on the monitors in front of them.

Hope Hicks, a former close aide to former President Donald Trump and perhaps the ultimate insider prior to the 2016 presidential election has been testifying for about a half-hour.

Here’s what we’ve heard so far from one of the trial’s most-anticipated witnesses:

Working for Trump’s campaign:

Familiarity with Trump’s orbit:

Relationship with Trump:

Nervous on the stand:

Hope Hicks is testifying that she became aware of the “Access Hollywood” tape on October 7, 2016, after receiving an email from a Washington Post reporter seeking comment about it.

She said she was in her office on the 14th floor of Trump Tower at the time.

Hope Hicks testified that they were traveling every day for the campaign in the fall of 2016.

Hicks described her campaign travel in fall 2016, where they would go on Trump’s plane from LaGuardia Airport and do between two and four stops per day. Most days, she says they would return to Trump Tower at the end of the day.

As Hicks testified, Trump wrote a note under the table and passed it to attorney Todd Blanche.

Hope Hicks was asked if she was ever in and out of the office when Donald Tump was meeting with David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, at Trump Tower.

“I don’t have a recollection of that,” she testified.

Remember: Pecker testified that she was in and out of the August 2015 meeting at Trump Tower when the alleged conspiracy was hatched.

Hope Hicks says she was present for phone calls between David Pecker and Donald Trump during the campaign, including shortly after the National Enquirer published a piece on Ben Carson.

Trump “congratulated them on the great reporting,” Hicks says. He called it “Pulitzer-worthy.”

Hope Hicks described Trump and David Pecker as “friends.”

She’d been introduced to him in a previous job and reconnected with him later when she worked with Trump. “I knew they were friends,” she says.

Hicks doesn’t recall when she knew that, but said “at some point I realized that.”

Prosecutors are asking Hope Hicks about David Pecker.

“Do you know someone named David Pecker?” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo asks.

“I know him as the publisher of American Media,” Hicks replies.

Hope Hicks continues to describe campaign operations.

“Mr.Trump was reachable. I mean, when he wasn’t doing rallies and interviews, he had a phone and he could be reached. But Keith was also helpful in facilitating phone calls,” Hicks said, referring to Keith Schiller.

Remember: Schiller served as the director of security for The Trump Organization and then as deputy assistant to President Trump and director of Oval Office operations.

In 2017, he hand-delivered a letter from the president firing FBI Director James Comey, entering the FBI headquarters with a manila folder and leaving without it.

Hope Hicks is potentially be a powerful witness for the prosecution because of her close ties to Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign.

“Ultimately, Hope Hicks was the ultimate insider,” CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said. “And prosecutors are focused on this crucial moment in time, right after the Access Hollywood tape dropped in October 2016.

And unlike Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer turned adversary, Hicks is someone who remains in Trump’s good graces. (She is testifying due to a subpoena.)

“If and when she says something that’s helpful for the prosecution’s case, it’s going to hit extra hard in favor of the prosecution because you can’t say this is a person who has a gripe or a beef with Donald Trump,” Honig added.

Hope Hicks confirmed during testimony that Trump was focused on press coverage of the campaign.

She checked with Trump before making statements to the press.

Hope Hicks says she traveled with Trump “almost every day” during the campaign.

Recalling who else would travel for the campaign with Trump, Hicks says “the core staff was very limited.”

Donald Trump has turned his head at times toward Hope Hicks, including when she said he deserved credit for campaign messaging.

Hope Hicks says Trump was “very involved” in his campaign and weighed in on media responses.

“He knew what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it. We were all just following his lead,” Hicks says.

“He deserves the credit for the different messages that the campaign focused on in terms of the agenda that he put forth,” Hicks adds.

Hope Hicks is testifying about her role as campaign press secretary.

“It was kind of a constant flow of incoming questions so I managed all of those and tried to respond to everybody in a timely manner,” she says.

“It was just me and Mr. Trump who is better than anybody at communications and branding,” she says. There was no communications team at this point in the campaign.

Attorney Todd Blanche smiled at the compliment. Trump did not visibly react but he’s studying the camera feed above him.

Hope Hicks recalled Donald Trump saying to her at one point that she’d be the campaign press secretary, and she thought it was a joke because she had no experience.

She said that eventually she spent so much time working on the campaign it eventually ended up that way.

Trump and his attorney Todd Blanche appear to be watching Hope Hicks’ testimony on a screen above them in the courtroom.

Trump and Blanche are whispering back and forth as Hicks testifies.

Hope Hicks is explaining how she began working for Trump’s presidential campaign in 2015.

Attorney Todd Blanche smiled and leaned over to whisper in Trump’s ear as she said this.

That initial Iowa trip was sometime in January 2015, she says.

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo now asks Hope Hicks about Michael Cohen’s role at The Trump Organization.

“Do you know what kind of work he did?” he asks.

“Not specifically. I know he was involved in a couple of the licenses deals for some of the hotel projects and maybe some of the entertainment pieces as well, like Miss Universe pageant,” she says.

Hope Hicks says that when she shifted to working on Trump’s political campaign, Allen Weisselberg helped with the personal financial disclosure Trump was required to provide.

He also provided an explanation they’d share with the press about how Trump “self-financed his campaign” and “loaned” money to the campaign, she says.

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo asks Hicks to describe Weisselberg’s relationship with Trump.

“Also mutual respect,” she says. “He was a trusted person there.”

“Are you familiar with someone named Allen Weisselberg,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo asked.

“Yes,” Hicks said.

Weisselberg was the former Trump Organization CFO.

Prosecutors are now asking about Rhona Graff, who was Trump’s former longtime assistant. Graff testified last week.

Graff and Trump had a relationship of “mutual respect,” Hope Hicks testifies.

“She was crucial to how everything ran on the 26th floor, she had a lot of institutional knowledge,” Hicks says.

When asked who Don Jr., Eric and Ivanka are, Hope Hicks gestures her hand toward the defense table, but keeps her gaze forward toward prosecutor Matthew Colangelo.

“They are Mr. Trump’s children,” she says.

Hope Hicks testifies that Donald Trump had a “close” relationship with Keith Schiller.

Schiller served as the director of security for The Trump Organization and then as deputy assistant to President Trump and director of Oval Office operations.

In 2017, he hand-delivered a letter from the president firing FBI Director James Comey, entering the FBI headquarters with a manila folder and leaving without it.

Hope Hicks testifies that everybody who worked at the Trump Organization “in some sense reports to Mr. Trump.”

“It’s a very big and successful company but it’s really run like a small family business in certain ways,” Hicks says of Trump Org.

Hope Hicks says that by 2015, she spoke with Trump “on the phone every day if we weren’t able to communicate in person.”

“I would usually call the office and be connected, but he had a cell phone or a home phone number as well,” she says

Hope Hicks has avoided looking at Donald Trump in the courtroom as she answers questions from Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo.

It was not unusual for her to be in and out of Donald Trump’s office during his meetings, Hope Hicks says.

Hope Hicks is describing working with Trump, saying, “he’s a very good multitasker.”

“He’s a very hard worker. He’s always doing many things at once,” Hicks says of Trump.

Hope Hicks is saying that in 2014, she started as the director of communications for Trump Organization, working on public relations materials and marketing collateral for the real estate and hospitality businesses. She says those businesses “were thriving” at the time.

Hicks says that when she transitioned into more of the political work, she began meeting with Trump more frequently.

Hope Hicks reiterated that she is nervous. She just stopped in the middle of her statement to say now that she can hear herself on the microphone, and it’s going to take a moment to get used to.

Hope Hicks says she has no current professional relationship with Trump. He is not a client in her current role.

Hope Hicks said she was last in contact with Trump in the summer or fall of 2022.

Hope Hicks is testifying pursuant to a subpoena and is paying for her attorney.

Hope Hicks is describing her work with Ivanka Trump.

“I was enjoying it so much that I was offered a position at the Trump Organization and jumped at the opportunity to join the company full time,” she says.

Donald Trump is looking toward Hope Hicks as she begins speaking.

He’s leaned back in his chair.

“I’m really nervous,” Hope Hicks says while looking at the jury. She looks visibly uncomfortable after taking the stand.

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo is handling the questioning.

Hope Hicks has entered the courtroom and is walking in the galley behind Trump.

Trump and attorney Todd Blanche smiled toward her.

She appeared to look straight ahead as she walked in.

Trump is speaking with his attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove while they wait for Hope Hicks to enter the courtroom.

Hope Hicks attends a Cabinet meeting at the White House in May 2020. 

Hope Hicks, once considered one of Donald Trump’s closest confidantes, has been called to the stand as the prosecution’s next witness.

As CNN has reported previously, Hicks appeared before the grand jury last year before Trump was indicted, as did Kellyanne Conway.

Hicks was Trump’s press secretary during the campaign and could shed light on what was happening inside the political operation in the final weeks before the 2016 election, as Michael Cohen was paying off adult film star Stormy Daniels to remain quiet about an alleged affair that Trump worried could upend his presidential campaign. Trump reimbursed Cohen after he took office and has since been charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records. The former president has pleaded not guilty and denied the affair.

Federal search warrants released in 2019 showed that prosecutors with the US attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York found there was a mad scramble inside the Trump campaign to suppress additional allegations of a sexual nature from becoming public after the “Access Hollywood” tape was released in the fall of 2016.

At the time, Hicks called Cohen and Trump joined, according to the documents. From there Cohen, acting as a middleman, was involved in at least 10 telephone calls that day, some involving Trump and Hicks and others involving American Media Inc. executives David Pecker and Dylan Howard. AMI owns the National Enquirer tabloid.

Those conversations, FBI officials believed, were apparently about Daniels, an adult film actress also known as Stephanie Clifford, according to the documents.

When Hicks testified before the House Judiciary Committee shortly before the documents’ release, she answered “no” when asked multiple times by Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee whether she was ever present when Trump and Cohen discussed Stormy Daniels, according to a transcript released of the closed-door interview.

Hicks also said she had no information about Daniels other than what she learned from reporters.

As prosecutors laid the foundation for their hush money criminal case against former President Donald Trump over the past several days, anticipation built for the appearance of a key witness: Hope Hicks, once considered one of Trump’s closest confidantes and most trusted aides.

Hicks was “privy to everything” long before Trump’s presidential campaign was taken seriously by many in the political establishment, says CNN national correspondent Kristen Holmes. “She is somebody who you would say, ‘knows where the bodies are buried,’” Holmes said.

Hicks for many years served as the person who people would contact when they wanted to get access to Trump. That has given the potential of her testimony an air of deep intrigue.

Thursday, the prosecution entered a large batch of text messages into evidence, including messages between ex-Trump attorney Michael Cohen and Hicks. The digital evidence also included Hicks’ contact information on Cohen’s phone.

Legal and political observers are watching closely for how she’ll further factor into proceedings.

Georgia Longstreet says she looked at between 5,000 and 10,000 social media posts in connection to this case.

Attorney Todd Blanche asks Longstreet if she decided which posts would be shown in court today.

“I’m just a paralegal, I don’t call the shots,” she says.

He first clarified with her that prosecutors opted to introduce seven of the thousands of posts she reviewed.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is asking Georgia Longstreet if she has listened to all of Michael Cohen’s “Mea Culpa” podcasts.

“Absolutely not,” Longstreet says, generating laughs from the courtroom, including from Blanche.

Donald Trump leaned back and smiled.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is starting questioning Georgia Longstreet, a paralegal at the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

The jury was shown multiple social media posts from Donald Trump after prosecutors played the statement Trump released on Twitter in response to the “Access Hollywood” tape, including:

They also were shown Truth Social posts from last year:

Prosecutors are now playing the statement Trump released on Twitter in response to the “Access Hollywood” tape.

The statement said: “Anyone who knows me knows these words don’t reflect who I am. I said it. I was wrong and I apologize.”

The video was played while embedded within the Trump tweet on the screen.

Donald Trump agreed to a stipulation indicating the Washington Post published an article on the “Access Hollywood” tape on October 7, 2016 at 4:01 p.m. ET.

“Jurors, the stipulation is information the parties have agreed to without the need to call a witness,” Judge Juan Merchan explains, saying it should be considered as any other evidence.

The jury is back following this morning’s break.

Defense attorney Todd Blanche objected to a Truth Social post where Donald Trump wrote, “If you go after me, I’m coming after you.”

Prosecutors want to get the post into evidence to show Trump’s “pressure campaign” against witnesses set to testify.

Judge Juan Merchan said he is letting the social media post into evidence, saying he’s satisfied that the prosecutors have laid proper foundation.

Judge Juan Merchan is going back through exhibits the defense is objecting to.

Attorney Todd Blanche says assuming the judge rejects his heresy objection they have agreed to a stipulation involving the Washington Post article. Prosecutors said with the stipulation, they will not seek to offer the Washington Post article.

Trump is looking at the screen as the judge is hearing arguments on the Twitter posts being admitted into evidence.

Judge Juan Merchan is back on the bench.

Georgia Longstreet, a paralegal in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, testified that she’s reviewed anywhere between 5,000 and 10,000 social media posts related to the Trump case.

CNN’s Jeremy Herb in the courthouse said the witness is meant to establish a foundation so prosecutors can introduce social media posts made by Trump.

Longstreet is not a household name, but it’s not uncommon to call a paralegal or other administrative staffer to testify. 

“Typically, you would call a paralegal … just to do basic mechanics,” CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said. “‘Yes, this is an article that appeared in the New York Post on such and such a date. This is a tweet or a Truth Social that was sent on such and such a date.’”

The jury has been excused, and court is taking a short break.

Georgia Longstreet is explaining to the jury that she placed the URL of websites into the Wayback Machine to retrieve news articles.

Prosecutors said earlier this morning they are using the digital archive service to introduce the Washington Post’s article on the “Access Hollywood” tape as it appeared in October 2016.

Georgia Longstreet is now explaining the social media platforms Twitter and Truth Social.

Longstreet says she reviewed the account @realdonaldtrump on Twitter, and she confirms this was Donald Trump’s account.

Prosecutors are expected to introduce social media posts made by Trump.

Trump’s legal team signaled ahead of the hush money criminal trial that they would attack the veracity and completeness of the information on Michael Cohen’s electronic devices — part of a broader strategy to chip away at the credibility of a key witness.

Before the trial began, Trump’s team tried to subpoena the Manhattan district attorney’s employee who was responsible for the phones during the four-day lapse before delivering the devices for review by the department of Douglas Daus, the man who we’ve been hearing testify.

Trump’s lawyers indicated in the letter they wanted to “challenge the integrity of evidence DANY will seek to offer from Cohen’s phones, for use in cross-examination of Cohen” and “regarding the bias and hostility toward President Trump to attack the lack of integrity of DANY’s investigation under federal constitutional.”

Prosecutors have sought to push back on this angle from the defense in court today.

“Did you see any evidence of tampering or manipulation on any of the data that you pulled related to the recording that’s in evidence as people’s 246?” prosecutor Chris Conroy asked a short time ago.

“I did not,” Daus testified.

Remember: Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer and “fixer,” served federal prison time for actions he took while playing that role. Now he is a key prosecution witness who will testify later in the case.

Several witnesses have already testified to unsavory things about Cohen, and the defense has been highlighting his past wrongdoing in hopes of chipping away at his credibility before he takes the stand.

Georgia Longstreet says she identified “publicly available materials” relevant to Donald Trump’s case, including social media posts and news articles.

She says she’s reviewed anywhere between 5,000 and 10,000 social media posts.

Trump is watching her and writing something. Meanwhile, attorney Todd Blanche is smiling.

The next witness is Georgia Longstreet, a paralegal at the district attorney’s office.

Prosecutor Rebecca Mangold will question her.

Trump attorney Emil Bove smirked and shook his head as prosecutor Chris Conroy asked his last inquiry on another round of questions.

Donald Trump hit Bove’s arm and gestured for him to get back up there, but Bove shook his head no.

Prosecutor Chris Conroy is back up for more questioning of witness Douglas Daus.

Conroy’s one question was if he made a phone call seven years ago with the phone in his pocket he wouldn’t expect to see it show up in the call log on the phone.

Daus responds, “I would not.”

Daus is off the stand.

The prosecution’s redirect is over, and Trump attorney Emil Bove is back up for recross-examination.

Bove asks, “Did you see gaps in the handling of this data that created risk for such tampering?”

“Yes,” Douglas Daus testifies.

Prosecutor Chris Conroy is asking Douglas Daus if he witnessed any evidence of tampering on data pulled from the recording on Michael Cohen’s phone.

“Did you see any evidence of tampering or manipulation on any of the data that you pulled related to the recording that’s in evidence as People’s 246?” Conroy asks.

“I did not,” Daus testifies.

Prosecutor Chris Conroy is starting his redirect, and says digital evidence analyst Douglas Daus was asked a series of questions about a phone being used.

“It is unusual for a phone to be used?” Conroy asks. “No,” Daus says.

Conroy says that the other recordings Defense attorney Emil Bove asked about are not relevant to this case, which Daus confirms.

Trump wrote something on a notepad and handed it to Bove.

The defense has completed cross-examination of witness Douglas Daus and prosecutors are back for another round of questioning.

Earlier, Trump read a note from attorney Todd Blanche and leaned in to whisper to him as his attorney Emil Bove questioned the witness.

Trump attorney Emil Bove says Douglas Daus is looking at evidence from 2016 with all of these intervening events between the files and when he obtained Michael Cohen’s phone in January 2023.

“All sorts of things have happened” with Cohen’s phone “that create variables that in your ideal situation would be investigated,” Bove says. Daus agrees.

Criminal defense attorney Bill Brennan, who has represented Donald Trump in the past, told CNN’s Kaitlin Collins that despite all the dramatic testimony so far, prosecutors have yet to tie wrongdoing to the former president.

“What we’ve heard so far is a lot of salacious conversations and sleazy deals between a disbarred lawyer who was known as the fixer, the [publisher] of a tabloid rag, and a lawyer that makes a living on the bottom selling non-disclosure agreements,” Brennan said, referring to Michael Cohen, David Pecker and Keith Davidson, respectively.

Trump attorney Emil Bove is now asking Douglas Daus about another sync of Michael Cohen’s phone in October 2020.

“We don’t know what it was from?” Bove asks. “I do not,” Daus replies.

“We’d have to take Michael Cohen’s word” for what happened to this phone in 2020, Bove says.

Douglas Daus explains that had the audio recording been edited or modified after September 6, it would show in the metadata.

Trump attorney Emil Bove moves to strike the answer — which Judge Juan Merchan overrules.

Bove then asks Daus if that was his hypothesis. Daus agrees, and confirms there was nothing in the metadata showing the file was modified.

Trump attorney Bove brings up that 46 seconds was cut off of the file of the September 6, 2016 audio recording on the phone between Michael Cohen and Donald Trump.

Daus agrees that he doesn’t know how much longer the conversation between Trump and Cohen continued.

Bove continues by mentioning news coverage about the audio recording in 2018, asking Daus whether this means that Cohen and his attorney sent the file to the media in 2018.

“Could have, yes,” Daus says. He agrees that it shows “the file is out there” in 2018.

Daus confirms that the data on the phone does not show a phone call that would have interfered with the recording on September 6.

Trump attorney Emil Bove asked Douglas Daus whether the reason that Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen had so many contacts on his cell phone was because he synced the phone to his laptop, which was connected to his iCloud account.

Daus says it “could be” an explanation for why Cohen had more than 39,000 contacts.

Trump attorney Emil Bove is asking Douglas Daus about a “factory wipe” of Michael Cohen’s first phone on October 1, 2016, after the date of the September 6, 2016 audio recording on the phone between Cohen and Donald Trump.

Bove asks Daus if the wipe “raises questions” about that audio file.

“You have to have a look at where that file came from,” Daus says.

Bove has Daus confirm that there was a backup and a sync of the phone in January 2017, when the phone was connected to Cohen’s laptop.

Daus was asked if he knew what was transferred back to the phone.

“That file certainly,” Daus said.

Douglas Daus confirms that Michael Cohen had encrypted messaging app Signal on his phone.

When users on Signal set up the app to delete messages, it is “very difficult” to recover messages forensically, he explains.

Trump attorney Emil Bove is asking Douglas Daus about the chain of custody of Michael Cohen’s two cell phones when they were turned over to the Manhattan district attorney’s office in January 2023.

There is a gap from January 19, when Cohen signed a form to turn over his cell phone, and January 23, when the cell phone was taken into custody, Daus agrees.

Douglas Daus, who processes digital evidence in the Manhattan district attorney’s office, is back on the stand to continue to be cross-examined by defense attorney Emil Bove.

Jurors are seated as the questioning is underway.

Remember: Prosecutors are presenting trial evidence through witness testimony and exhibits. Defense attorneys can cross-examine the prosecution’s witnesses and typically aim to discredit their testimony.

Witnesses’ responses are considered evidence, but not the questions posed by an attorney. Read up on the steps of the trial here.

Defense lawyers and prosecutors are in a bench conference before Douglas Daus is called back to the stand to continue his testimony.

While the lawyers sidebar, Trump is sitting with his eyes closed at the defense table.

Judge Juan Merchan reiterates that he ruled that a full transcript of the “Access Hollywood” tape can come into evidence per his previous ruling. But the judge says that the story in the Washington Post with a photo of Trump is “damning evidence” and Merchan said he does not want those words associated with a photo of Trump for the jury.

Merchan says that prosecutors need to have the ability to establish the date of the article, which is why they say they want to introduce it.

Donald Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche is arguing that a Truth Social post from the former president from last August should also not come into evidence.

The post reads: “If you go after me, I’m coming after you.”

He said it’s a reaction to calls by some political action committees to spend money to make sure Trump is not reelected. The campaign reacted forcefully, he said, and “it had nothing to do with witnesses.”

Trump attorney Todd Blanche invokes the recent Court of Appeals decision overturning Harvey Weinstein’s conviction.

Judge Juan Merchan says “the Weinstein decision really doesn’t factor into this.”

The Weinstein reference came up as they were seeking to limit Access Hollywood tape references.

Trump attorney Todd Blanche is beginning by raising evidentiary objections to the next witness, a summary witness.

He cites a Trump post on Truth Social, Trump tweets and a tweet and article by the Washington Post and Blanche argues that there is hearsay information in the tweets and the article.

The article in question is the Post’s piece on the “Access Hollywood” tape from October 2016.

“There’s quotation marks around the entire article. The danger of unfair prejudice is extreme in this situation,” Blanche argues.

Blanche is also arguing a tweet from the Washington Post should not come into evidence because it includes a photo of Trump, Billy Bush, and one of the women in the video.

Donald Trump appeared to look up at Judge Juan Merchan while the judge addressed him but gave no obvious acknowledgement or response.

Judge Juan Merchan is beginning court today by clarifying to Donald Trump that he has the “absolute” right to testify if he chooses.

Merchan says he is doing this to clarify the gag order.

The judge did not rule on the additional alleged gag order violations brought against Trump.

Former President Donald Trump attends his trial on Friday.

Judge Juan Merchan is on the bench and court is back in session.

“Good morning, Mr Trump,” Merchan said as proceedings picked up again.

Trump could be seen leaning forward to pose as photographers entered the room.

Prosecutors have entered the courtroom, as a digital evidence analyst in the Manhattan district attorney’s office is expected to return to the stand this morning.

In this courtroom sketch, digital evidence analyst Douglas Daus testifies on Thursday, May 2.

We are expecting to hear more today from Douglas Daus, who works for the Manhattan district attorney’s office. The prosecution called him to the witness stand on Thursday.

What Daus does: He processes digital evidence in the High Technology Analysis Unit.

Prosecutors used Daus, who is their seventh witness, to introduce into evidence an audio recording of a crucial phone call from September 2016 between Michael Cohen and Donald Trump.

Jurors heard Cohen say on the call he needed to open a company, and that he’s spoken with the Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg about how to set the whole thing up. This company was to facilitate the $150,000 payment to Karen McDougal.

CNN reported in 2018 on a recording of the conversation.

Before court ended for the day, the defense was questioning Daus on whether he talked to anyone at the FBI about their extraction process on the phone before it was obtained by his office. There were earlier questions from defense about whether the integrity of data matters more in a criminal case because people’s rights are at stake. Defense also questioned whether it’s ideal for a device that’s obtained to go immediately “in the vault.”

CNN’s Kristina Sgueglia contributed reporting to this post.

Donald Trump’s motorcade has arrived at the Manhattan courthouse where the former president is expected to attend witness testimony from a digital evidence analyst who so far helped introduce phone call recordings between former fixer Michael Cohen and Trump into evidence.

Court is at an abbreviated schedule, beginning at 9:30 a.m. ET and wrapping at 3:45 p.m. ET so a juror can make an appointment.

Former President Donald Trump attends his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on Thursday, May 2.

Donald Trump has been accused of taking part in an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election and an unlawful plan to suppress negative information, which included a hush money payment made to an adult film star to hide an affair. The former president has denied the affair.

Prosecutors allege that Trump allegedly disguised the transaction as a legal payment and falsified business records numerous times to “promote his candidacy.” Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records. He has pleaded not guilty.

Donald Trump’s motorcade departed moments ago from Trump Tower and is heading to the Manhattan criminal court.

A Manhattan district attorney employee and digital evidence analyst, who helped introduce phone call recordings between former fixer Michael Cohen and Trump into evidence, is expected to return to the stand for defense cross-examination.

CNN’s Kristina Sgueglia contributed reporting in this post.

Judge Juan Merchan held another gag order hearing Thursday morning to consider the prosecution’s four additional allegations against former President Donald Trump in the hush money trial.

Prosecutors are asking for a $1,000 maximum fine for each alleged violation, but they told Merchan they are not seeking to put Trump in jail. Trump earlier this week was fined $9,000 for nine violations of the gag order.

The judge did not immediately issue a ruling Thursday. Here’s what to know:

Prosecutors allege several gag order violations:

• Trump is impacting the fairness of the trial: “His statements are corrosive to this proceeding and the fair administration of justice,” prosecutor Chris Conroy said. “The defendant is doing everything he can to make this case” about politics.

• Trump is aware of gag order parameters: Conroy reminded the court that Trump attorney Todd Blanche assured the judge last week that the former president “does, in fact, know what the gag order allows him to do and not allow him to do.”

• No jail request: Prosecutors told the judge they were not seeking that Trump be incarcerated for the violations.

Trump’s defense argues he did not violate gag order:

• Trump needs to defend himself against attacks: Blanche argued that upcoming witnesses Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels are “not people who need to be protected.”

• “Daring” Trump to reply: “Cohen has been inviting and almost daring President Trump to respond to almost everything he’s saying,” Blanche said. He added that Daniels shouldn’t be covered by the gag order either, though he acknowledged that her comments about Trump are not so “voluminous.” Merchan reiterated that the order means Trump is “not allowed to refer” to foreseeable witnesses.

Read more about the gag order and yesterday’s hearing.

A general view shows Judge Juan Merchan's courtroom at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on March 12.

Former President Donald Trump is on trial in Manhattan for his alleged role in a hush money scheme to silence his alleged mistresses before the 2016 election. He faces 34 counts related to “falsifying New York business records in order to conceal damaging information and unlawful activity from American voters before and after the 2016 election.” 

Prosecutors need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump falsified business records with the intent to commit or conceal another crime, but they don’t have to prove that Trump committed that crime. The prosecution theory is that the second crime could be in violation of federal and state election laws or state tax laws regarding how the reimbursements to Michael Cohen were handled. 

Trump’s attorneys have kept their defense close to the vest, but in court filings they’ve indicated that they plan to attack the credibility of Cohen and Stormy Daniels and paint them as liars who are motivated by grudges and money. 

Trump’s legal team is led by Todd Blanche and Emil Bove, two former federal prosecutors from New York, and Susan Necheles, a veteran criminal defense lawyer with deep experience in New York and before Merchan. Necheles represented Trump’s business at its tax fraud trial in 2022. The company was convicted. 

Outside lawyers who have been following the case closely say Trump is likely to argue that hush money payments are legal and distance the former president from the repayment scheme and bookkeeping handled by his trusted employees. They may also argue the payments were made to prevent embarrassment to Trump’s family and not to influence the election. Trump could also testify in his own defense. He has testified in two recent civil trials, after regretting not taking the stand in a prior civil trial, but the stakes are higher in a criminal case.

Former President Donald Trump has been accused of taking part in an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election and an unlawful plan to suppress negative information, which included a hush money payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels to hide an affair. Trump has denied the affair.

Daniels, whose legal name is Stephanie Clifford, received a $130,000 payment just days before the 2016 presidential election. Prosecutors allege Trump disguised the transaction as a legal payment and falsified business records numerous times to “promote his candidacy.” Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records. He has pleaded not guilty.

Daniels shared in a documentary released in March that she accepted the payment to keep her one-night stand with Trump in 2006 from becoming public to protect her husband and daughter.

Meanwhile, Karen McDougal is a model and actress who has said she had a monthslong affair with Trump in 2006. She was paid $150,000 to keep quiet about it by the National Enquirer, according to prosecutors. Trump has denied the affair.

While the hush money trial is focused on the hush money deal involving Daniels, prosecutors have used the alleged McDougal payoff as evidence the schemes were aimed at protecting Trump’s electoral chances.

See a full timeline of key moments in the case.

Former President Donald Trump’s first criminal trial is expected to take six to eight weeks from start to finish.

Where we are in the trial: Prosecutors are presenting trial evidence through witness testimony and exhibits. Defense attorneys can cross-examine the prosecution’s witnesses and typically aim to discredit their testimony.

The defense is expected to continue to cross-examine the prosecution’s seventh witness today, digital evidence analyst Douglas Daus. Witnesses’ responses are considered evidence, but not the questions posed by an attorney.

To better understand what’s going on as the proceedings progress, CNN compiled the steps of a criminal trial. Read up on the stages of the proceedings here.

We’re now in the third week of court proceedings in Donald Trump’s historic hush money criminal trial.

To refresh your memory, here are the key moments and witnesses from the trial so far:

April 15: Trial began with jury selection

April 19: A panel of 12 jurors and six alternates was selected.

April 22: The prosecution and defense made their opening statements. Former tabloid boss David Pecker was called to testify.

April 23: Judge Juan Merchan held a Sandoval hearing for Trump’s alleged gag order violations, but reserved his decision.

April 25: While Trump sat in the Manhattan courtroom, the Supreme Court heard arguments on the matter of his immunity in special counsel Jack Smith’s election subversion case against him.

April 26: Pecker’s direct questioning and cross-examination concluded. Trump’s former longtime assistant Rhona Graff was called to testify briefly. Finally, Michael Cohen’s former banker Gary Farro testified.

April 30: Farro’s testimony concluded. Prosecutors then called Dr. Robert Browning, the executive director of C-SPAN archives, and Philip Thompson who works for a court reporting company. Then, Keith Davidson, the former attorney for Daniels and McDougal, took the stand.

May 2: Davidson’s testimony concluded. Digital evidence analyst Douglas Daus was called to testify.

Former President Donald Trump attends his trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments at Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on Thursday, May 2.

Here are the top takeaways from Thursday, which was Day 10 of Donald Trump’s hush money trial:

Trump lawyer drags Davidson through the celebrity mud: After prosecutors finished walking Keith Davidson meticulously through the deals he cut before the 2016 election for both Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, Trump’s attorney dragged Davidson through the proverbial celebrity mud, ticking through a host of deals he was involved with related to other high-profile figures.

Emil Bove pressed Davidson on whether he had studied extortion law when he sought money from AMI and Michael Cohen for the McDougal and Daniels deals. Bove asked Davidson whether he went “right up to the line without committing extortion” with the Trump deals. Without saying so specifically, the upshot from Trump’s attorney was that the Trump deals followed a pattern that bordered on extortion. The upshot from Trump’s attorney was that the Trump deals followed a pattern that bordered on extortion.

Another gag order hearing over Trump comments: Merchan held a second hearing Thursday morning over more gag order violations prosecutors want Trump held in contempt for. Merchan did not rule on the latest allegations after Thursday’s hearing. Prosecutor Chris Conroy pointed to four of Trump’s comments since last Monday — two were about Cohen, the others were about the jury and former AMI chief David Pecker. The district attorney’s office wants Trump fined $1,000 for each violation but is not yet asking Merchan to jail him, noting the inconvenient slowing effect it’d have on the trial.

Witnesses don’t have nice things to say about Michael Cohen: Davidson was just the latest witness to testify to unsavory things about Cohen – Trump’s former fixer and a key prosecution witness who will testify later in the case. Davidson described how Cohen was difficult to deal with, frequently acting in a “pants on fire” manner. Davidson testified that he had “lost trust” with Cohen to pay the money he’d agreed to in the Daniels deal – and at one point he said the deal was off after Cohen failed to meet a deadline.

In this courtroom sketch, prosecutors ask Keith Davidson, right, another round of questions after the defense completed cross-examination on Thursday, May 2.

Keith Davidson, a key witness who negotiated the Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal hush money agreements, was back on the stand on Thursday in the criminal trial against Donald Trump.

The lawyer helped negotiate the deals to silence Daniels and McDougal over their alleged encounters with Trump. Davidson said in an interview with CNN in 2018 that he’d spoken with Michael Cohen on several occasions about the two women.

On cross-examination, the defense painted Davidson as a shady lawyer who goes “right up to the line without committing extortion” on multiple cases involving not only Trump but other celebrities.

The next witness was Douglas Daus, who works for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office in the High Technology Analysis Unit. He is expected to continue his testimony today.

Here’s what happened in court Thursday:

Prosecution:

Defense cross-examination:

Douglas Daus

Gag order hearing: Judge Juan Merchan held a gag order hearing Thursday morning to consider the prosecution’s four additional allegations against Trump. Earlier in the week, the judge levied a $9,000 fine against Trump for multiple violations of the judge’s gag order barring public discussion of witnesses in the case or the jury.