'Case over': Prosecutors were practically 'dropping the mic' after Hope Hicks testified
Hope Hicks delivered show-stopping testimony last week against Donald Trump during his hush money trial, according to CNN's John Berman.
The former president's longtime aide told the jury that Trump's campaign was so concerned about the "Access Hollywood" tape, which showed him bragging about molesting women, that he and attorney Michael Cohen hatched a scheme to pay off two of his mistresses to ensure their silence before the election, and Berman said she helped prove one key element of the case.
"Hope Hicks said on direct examination in this trial on Friday, she said, 'I think Mr. Trump's opinion was it was better to be dealing with it now,' in other words, the payments to Stormy Daniels and that it would have been bad to have that story come out before the election," Berman said. "Then the prosecutor says, 'No further questions,' literally almost dropping the mic, walking out."
Criminal defense attorney Joey Jackson cautioned that a single witness rarely decided the outcome of a case, but he agreed that Hicks had provided crucial evidence that prosecutors need to win a conviction.
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"No one witness, right, generally is going to win a case, is going to lose a case, it's about connecting the dots, right, and now let's look at this dot and response to your question," Jackson said. "What does the tie-in, the tie-in with respect to her testimony is what would motivate Trump, right, to direct Cohen to make a payment. That's the inference such that Trump has knowledge that his fixer did not go rogue, unlike defense claims, this is just the argument but was doing it at the behest in the direction of Trump, that is because there was mass concern."
"Who was Hope Hicks?" Jackson added. "She is the press secretary for the campaign, later White House communications director. She would know what the campaign is all about, what they're doing, what their activities are, what Mr. Trump is directing people to do. 'Access Hollywood' tape comes out, boom, it's a bombshell. What are we going to do to quell this fire? We cannot have another story come out that would diminish our campaign, silence that story. Trump tells Cohen, get this done, payment is made, has his knowledge – case over. That's what the prosecution wants the jury to take from that testimony."
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