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Hope Hicks was referred to as Donald Trump’s gatekeeper, a relaxing drive for the previous president who has been by his aspect for years as a loyal confidante.
She is now taking part in a key function as a witness in his trial. On Friday, Hicks took the stand as a witness for the prosecution within the New York prison trial, the place she testified towards her former boss.
Earlier within the trial, former writer of the Nationwide Enquirer tabloid David Pecker testified a few convention name arrange by Trump with Hicks and Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who on the time was serving within the Trump administration and is now the governor of Arkansas. The decision centered round Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal and an settlement together with her to forestall her from talking in regards to the alleged affair with Trump.
“They thought that it was a good suggestion,” Pecker testified of Hicks and Huckabee Sanders.
On the witness stand Friday, Hicks testified that she crafted a number of attainable responses to a Wall Avenue Journal story about McDougal’s hush cash and shared them with Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen. When she began her testimony, her voice wavered and she or he stated she was nervous.
She additionally advised the jury about how the infamous “Entry Hollywood” tape was a “damaging growth” in the course of the 2016 election cycle.
Hicks grew to become — together with former Trump marketing campaign supervisor Corey Lewandowski — one of many two primary staffers in the course of the earliest days of his 2016 marketing campaign. Trump on the time was considered a sideshow by the media, earlier than changing into the dominant chief within the main and, later, the Republican Occasion nominee. Whereas there have been a number of shakeups all through Trump’s profitable bid, Hicks at all times survived — a sign of her closeness with Trump.
Hicks joined Trump’s White Home as a high adviser. She was steadily within the Oval Workplace with the president, and maintained a detailed relationship with Trump’s daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, each of whom have been additionally senior figures within the White Home. Whereas different aides have been locked in infighting and turmoil, Hicks largely managed to remain above the fray.
Whereas Trump cycled by way of quite a few high advisers, who rose and fell in his favor, Hicks was a close to fixed. Her title was senior communications adviser, however that belied her significance. Her actual job, those that labored together with her say, was to handle Trump. Her workplace was proper exterior the Oval Workplace, a mirrored image of her significance to the previous president.
“Hope was one of many president’s most loyal and devoted advisers,” stated Raj Shah, a former Trump White Home official. “What separated her from others was that she was amongst few very savvy operatives who’d been with him from the start. The president instinctively trusted her judgment.”
Whereas lots of these within the Trump White Home have been motivated to drive a coverage or private agenda, those that labored with Hicks say she had one curiosity: Trump himself.
However that closeness additionally led to her getting wrapped up in his authorized points. Hicks, for instance, appeared earlier than the grand jury final 12 months earlier than Trump was indicted.
She additionally drew consideration in 2018, when it emerged she reportedly had a romantic relationship with a fellow White Home adviser, Rob Porter.
That 12 months, she left the White Home for the West Coast, and moved to Los Angeles to work for the Fox Company. Buddies stated she didn’t like being so distant from her household, and as soon as once more returned to Washington in March of 2020 as a counselor to the president. Her imaginative and prescient for the job was to journey with him and supply strategic recommendation — nevertheless it was the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and her consideration was pulled towards serving to handle communications for the incoming public well being disaster.
Hicks left the White Home on Jan. 12, 2021, six days after the lethal Capitol siege and eight days earlier than Trump left workplace. Hicks stated on the time that her departure was deliberate earlier than the riot.
Hicks, it later emerged, had been extremely crucial of Trump’s conduct across the Capitol riot. The Home committee investigating the assault later launched textual content messages Hicks despatched to Ivanka Trump chief of workers Julie Radford through which she wrote that “in someday [Trump] ended each future alternative that doesn’t embrace talking engagements on the native proud boys chapter.”
Extra not too long ago, Hicks has performed strategic communications consulting for controversial fast-fashion retailer Shein, which has attracted latest consideration in Washington for its ties to China. In the course of the 2022 midterm election, Hicks served as an adviser to unsuccessful Pennsylvania Senate candidate David McCormick, who’s married to former Trump White Home official Dina Powell.
“Hope is extraordinarily good, politically savvy and strategic,” stated Hogan Gidley, a former Trump White Home official. “She has an unbelievable potential to learn folks and skim the room at any cut up second and once you’re coping with world catastrophes or home political fights she has a really sturdy ability set and talent to supply sturdy recommendation and accomplish that unselfishly with Donald Trump’s curiosity at coronary heart.”
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