A new report from CNN says that Hope Hicks — a political operative known for her past involvement in Donald Trump’s political circles — is expected to be called as a witness in the former president’s quickly approaching criminal trial in New York City on allegations of falsifying business records.
The alleged actions related to hush money from before the 2016 elections for Stormy Daniels, a woman with whom Trump allegedly had an affair. Hicks previously served as a press secretary for the Trump campaign, later holding responsibilities in the Trump White House itself — though it’s likely the earlier periods that are of the most interest for the prosecutors who’d be questioning her.
Hicks previously provided grand jury testimony in the lead-up to Trump’s indictment in this case, and she has also testified to Congress, where she claimed to one Democratic questioner that she was not present for discussions between Trump and his former fixer Michael Cohen regarding Daniels. Cohen was involved in the hush money developments, providing the money for Daniels before reimbursements that are the subject of the allegedly falsified business records pinned on Trump here.
In theory, Hicks could provide insight about worries inside Trump’s circles regarding the prospect of stories like Daniels’ as Trump prepared for the 2016 presidential election, the claimed backdrop central to the allegations of falsified records.
CNN specifies that Hicks’ prospective appearance at Trump’s quickly approaching trial is not set in rhetorical stone, though there were also some other major developments already seen on this front with just weeks until trial. The judge allowed a range of testimony from Daniels, Cohen, and Karen McDougal, another woman who allegedly had an affair with Trump and was the target of her own financial arrangement with a tabloid that silenced her for a time. (They bought her story’s rights.)
In other news from the case, the judge expanded Trump’s gag order this week after the former president went relentlessly after the judge’s daughter, who’s not involved in the case.
