Former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks took the stand in Manhattan on Friday, and her testimony could be a “nightmare” for her former boss, one legal analyst claimed.
Harry Litman, senior legal affairs columnist for the Los Angeles Times and a former deputy assistant attorney general and U.S. attorney, wrote in a series of posts to X that he considered Hicks to be possibly “devastating” to former President Donald Trump’s defense.
It should be noted that Litman is a lifelong Democrat and clearly no fan of the former president’s, as some of the wording of his posts made clear. It’s also worth mentioning that Litman has attended portions of Trump’s trial, but was not there in person Friday to watch Hicks’ testimony and instead relied on the reports of others who were present.
Hicks was testifying about her knowledge of the Trump administration and the events surrounding the alleged payment of “hush money” to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels in return for her agreement to keep her alleged affair with Trump secret.
Trump, 77, has pleaded not guilty to all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records with which he has been charged and had denied that the affair ever occurred, according to Newsweek.
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Litman said Hicks “might have been well cast as the final witness” by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg‘s prosecution, calling Hicks “loyal” to Trump until becoming disillusioned with him during the Jan. 6 incursion at the Capitol.
Hicks might have been well cast as the final witness, a totally credible figure who had been loyal to him and then was dismayed even disgusted by 1/6. She was in the Grand Jury and they know what she’ll say, and it might include some devastating stuff.
— Harry Litman (@harrylitman) May 3, 2024
Litman argued in other posts that Hicks was one of the “very very few” individuals on either side of the case who didn’t have an obvious reason to provide untruthful testimony and had been close to Trump, making her comments that much more valuable to the prosecution if she had unfavorable things to say about her former boss.
Will Hicks’ testimony have an impact on this trial?
Yes: 30% (97 Votes)
No: 70% (227 Votes)
The fact that Hicks paid for her own lawyer — rather than allowing the Trump organization to provide one for her — only adds to her credibility, Litman said, which is what makes her a potential “nightmare” for Trump’s defense.
“Useful to think of witnesses according to what the other side can say about them in closing argument,” he wrote on X.
“In that sense, Hicks is a nightmare for the defense,” he explained. “They can try to argue around her testimony but will be extremely hard to suggest she’s lying or puffing.”
Useful to think of witnesses according to what the other side can say about them in closing argument. In that sense, Hicks is a nightmare for the defense. They can try to argue around her testimony but will be extremely hard to suggest she’s lying or puffing.
— Harry Litman (@harrylitman) May 3, 2024
He also said that Hicks testified that Trump lied to her and “obviously exploited” her. Because she seems like a credible witness, that could also damage the jury’s opinion of the former president, he argued.
Karen Friedman Agnifilo, a former Manhattan chief assistant district attorney, made very similar points in an email to Newsweek on Friday.
“I think she is an incredibly powerful witness for the prosecution,” Agnifilo wrote, according to the outlet. “[She’s] a true insider who has no axe to grind, no baggage, no bias.
“The jury will believe her,” she added.
