Former high White Home communications aide Hope Hicks began crying on the witness stand Friday as an lawyer for Donald Trump started cross-examining her testimony within the ex-president’s felony hush cash trial.

Hicks and the jury briefly left the courtroom whereas she composed herself.

The emotional outburst got here initially of the protection attorneys’ time to query Hicks, who spoke simply ft away from her former boss in Manhattan Supreme Courtroom.

Prosecutors had requested Hicks concerning the notorious “Entry Hollywood” tape that threatened Trump’s 2016 presidential marketing campaign simply weeks earlier than Election Day.

“Everybody was simply absorbing the shock of it,” Hicks testified.

Hicks, a high press aide for the marketing campaign on the time, stated she was “very involved” when she acquired an e mail from The Washington Publish on Oct. 7, 2016, searching for touch upon the tape through which Trump is heard bragging about sexual misconduct.

Hicks was involved “concerning the contents of the e-mail” and about “the dearth of time to reply,” she testified.

She stated she notified different marketing campaign leaders, together with Jason Miller, David Bosse, Kellyanne Conway and Steve Bannon. She wrote that the preliminary technique ought to be that they “want to listen to the tape to make certain” and to “deny, deny, deny.”

When Trump learn the transcript of the tape, he stated, “That does not sound like one thing I might say,” Hicks testified.

In a short cross-examination, Hicks informed Trump’s lawyer that she was not concerned with the Trump Group’s record-keeping practices whereas she was on the White Home.

The tape is a major piece of the case in opposition to Trump, who’s charged with falsifying data as a part of a scheme to silence damaging details about him forward of the 2016 election.

Legal professional Keith Davidson testified Tuesday that the tape spurred a swell of media curiosity in porn star Stormy Daniels’ declare that she had intercourse with Trump whereas he was married years earlier.

“I believe earlier than, earlier than [the] ‘Entry Hollywood’ tape, there was little or no curiosity from what I perceive,” stated Davidson, who represented Daniels and helped dealer a $130,000 hush cash cost to her.

Hicks, 35, has deep roots in Trump’s enterprise and political lives, and she or he was current for most of the scandals that outlined Trump’s marketing campaign and his time period in workplace. She labored for the Trump Group earlier than being tapped in early 2015 as Trump’s marketing campaign press secretary. Hicks labored for Trump over his 4 years within the White Home.

Hicks, showing in Manhattan Supreme Courtroom underneath subpoena, testified that she has not spoken to Trump for the reason that summer time or fall of 2022.

Her testimony follows that of eight different witnesses together with Davidson, who negotiated six-figure hush cash offers for Daniels and former Playboy mannequin Karen McDougal forward of the 2016 presidential election.

Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying enterprise data associated to the cost to Daniels. Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg accuses Trump of unlawfully attempting to affect the election by shopping for and suppressing damaging details about him.

On Thursday, Choose Juan Merchan held a listening to on whether or not Trump violated the gag order once more, barring him from talking about jurors, witnesses and others concerned within the trial.

Merchan had already held Trump in felony contempt for violating his speech restrictions 9 instances. The choose fined Trump $9,000, the utmost, and warned him that future violations might land him in jail. Prosecutors in Thursday’s listening to flagged 4 extra alleged gag order violations by Trump, although they stated they weren’t searching for to place him in jail.

Merchan has but to rule on the extra alleged violations.

Over two days of testimony, Davidson mentioned his work with the Nationwide Enquirer and Trump’s then-lawyer Michael Cohen to craft the hush cash offers, within the course of shedding gentle on how tabloids function of their hunt for lurid tales.

David Pecker, the previous CEO of the Enquirer’s writer, described his work in prior trial testimony as “checkbook journalism” and stated he made offers with the understanding of attempting to assist Trump’s election possibilities.

On the night time Trump received that election, Davidson texted the Enquirer’s then-editor-in-chief, “What have we executed?”

He testified Thursday that the textual content was “kind of gallows humor.” However he added that he and the highest editor, Dylan Howard, understood on the time that “our actions could have indirectly assisted the presidential marketing campaign of Donald Trump.”

On cross-examination, Trump’s lawyer harassed that Davidson by no means met or spoke with Trump and that every one his information concerning the then-presidential candidate got here secondhand.

After Davidson left the witness stand, prosecutors referred to as Douglas Daus, a forensic analyst for Bragg’s workplace who detailed his findings from Cohen’s cellphone.

Jurors heard a recording of Trump saying asking Cohen, “So what will we obtained to pay for this — 150?” and instructing his lawyer to “pay with money.” Pecker’s firm on the time, American Media, paid McDougal $150,000 for the rights to her affair declare as a part of an alleged “catch and kill” scheme to bury the story.