A witness in Donald Trump’s hush money trial is likely to be “forthcoming,” a top legal analyst has said.
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, MSNBC legal correspondent Lisa Rubin said that Hope Hicks, a former communications director for Trump who is expected to testify in the upcoming trial, has a history of being forthcoming with government investigators and so will likely be open if she testifies.
Due to begin this month, the hush money trial will determine whether Trump falsified business records over hush money payments to former adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep an alleged affair secret before the 2016 election, as alleged in a criminal indictment. Prosecutors led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg allege the payments were part of a scheme to stop potentially damaging stories about the Republican from becoming public. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee for 2024, has denied any wrongdoing and pleaded not guilty to the 34 charges against him in the case.
MSNBC reported that Hicks would testify in the proceedings last week, citing an unidentified source who has “direct knowledge” of the situation.
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Analysing Hicks’ potential testimony, Rubin wrote: “Some have asked me whether Hope Hicks will testify truthfully if called as a witness in the Manhattan DA’s criminal trial. Hicks is no stranger to talking to government investigators–and her history suggests she’ll be forthcoming.”
Some have asked me whether Hope Hicks will testify truthfully if called as a witness in the Manhattan DA’s criminal trial. Hicks is no stranger to talking to government investigators–and her history suggests she’ll be forthcoming. 1/
— Lisa Rubin (@lawofruby) April 11, 2024
In further tweets, she evidenced this by adding that Hicks called Trump “angry” in an FBI interview and saying that “she didn’t shy away from controversy” when testifying before the House Judiciary Committee in June 2019 about the case.
Meanwhile, ahead of the trial, former White House special counsel Norm Eisen said that Trump’s legal team is showing “extraordinary desperation” as the ex-president faces “a significant risk of being convicted and sentenced to incarceration.”
On CNN, Eisen said: “I have never seen anything like this. He stands a significant risk of being convicted and sentenced to incarceration, and he knows it.”
Trump is facing three other criminal indictments, two concerning allegedly conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and another relating to keeping classified documents when he left office and allegedly obstructing attempts by law enforcement to retrieve them. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges across these cases.
Newsweek contacted a representative for Trump by email outside of business hours to comment on this story.
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