Hope Hicks broke down in tears on the witness stand during Trump-damaging testimony at hush-money trial

• Hope Hicks, a former longtime advisor to Donald Trump, took the witness stand in his hush-money trial Friday.
• Just after Trump's lawyer began cross-examining her, she broke down in tears.
• Hicks was Trump's 2016 campaign press secretary and later his White House communications director.

Hope Hicks, an ex-White House aide and longtime advisor to Donald Trump, broke down in tears while on the witness stand on Friday in the former president's hush-money criminal trial.

Her voice cracked as she began answering questions from Trump's lawyer Emil Bove Thursday afternoon, who had asked her whether the Trump Organization created the position of Communications Director to get her to join the company in October 2014.

After answering "yes," Hicks grabbed a tissue and turned to her left while sitting on the witness stand. She turned her face and body away from the courtroom audience.

"Ms. Hicks, do you need a break?" the trial judge Juan Merchan asked.

"Yes, please," she responded in a cracked voice, while facing away from the judge.

After the judge announced a break, she walked across the courtroom, passing by Trump without looking at him.

Hicks is a key witness in the trial, potentially linking Trump directly to what prosecutors call an election-influencing scheme to purchase a porn star's silence in the days before the 2016 presidential election.

Hicks — Trump's 2016 campaign press secretary and later his White House communications director — said on the stand in the Manhattan courtroom that she was testifying pursuant to a subpoena in the historic case.

Prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office allege Trump illegally falsified 34 business records by covering up a $130,000 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

The payment, handled by Trump's ex-personal attorney and former fixer Michael Cohen, was made to Daniels 11 days before the 2016 presidential election to buy her silence over a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, prosecutors allege.

While Trump's lawyers have claimed the arrangements were made to avoid personal embarrassment, Hicks — Trump's 2016 campaign communications director — testified about working with Trump and Cohen to respond to media inquiries about the scandal.

In their opening statements, prosecutors said the campaign was particularly vulnerable to the perceptions of female voters following the publication of the Access Hollywood tape, and so Trump sprung into action to block Daniels from going public about an affair she says she had with him.

"I was definitely concerned this was going to be a massive story and make the news cycle for the next couple of days — at least," Hicks said on the witness stand earlier Friday, explaining her reaction to learning about the tape.

In her testimony, Hicks hurt Trump by showing how deeply he — and the campaign — worried about infidelity stories going public in the weeks before the election.

Hicks became emotional as prosecutors wrapped up their direct examination of her.

Her final answer helped bolster the district attorney's case. She said Trump was happy that news of the hush-money arrangement with Daniels had become public in 2018 "rather than just before the election."

Hicks took the witness stand again after about a five-minute break, looking flushed but calmer.

Hicks was one of Trump's most trusted advisors in his 2016 climb to the presidency and federal prosecutors have said in court papers from the 2019 prosecution of Michael Cohen that she could directly tie Trump to the so-called "catch-and-kill" scheme.

She was in on a flurry of phone calls and emails involving Trump, Cohen, and two top executives at the National Enquirer, in the wake of the publication of Trump's notorious Access Hollywood tape, prosecutors have alleged.

"I was concerned. Very concerned," she said of receiving a transcript of the Access Hollywood tape.

Hicks was also in on a three-way conference call with Trump and Cohen as they allegedly talked about safeguarding Clifford's silence, the feds alleged on pages 41 and 42 of a 269-page search warrant.