Hope Hicks Says Trump Hid Newspapers With Stories About His 'Affairs,' As He Feared Losing Melania

According to reports, Donald Trump was 'concerned' about his wife Melania Trump's reaction to a notorious video in which he boasted about grabbing women. As his former press secretary Hope Hicks said, Trump was concerned about Melania's reaction to the video of 'Access Hollywood', in which he talked about grabbing women's genitalia.

As reported by The Daily Mail, the former Trump advisor was invited to testify by the prosecution on Friday. Hicks was the press secretary for Trump's 2016 campaign and the director of communications in the Trump White House, making her one of his closest advisors. Hicks revealed on the witness stand, "President Trump really values Mrs Trump’s opinion, and she doesn’t weigh in all the time, but when she does, it’s really meaningful to him. He really, really respects what she has to say. I think he was just concerned about what her perception of this would be."

Trump was also concerned about Melania's reaction to a Wall Street Journal article from 2016 that revealed former Playboy model Karen McDougal's allegations of having an affair with him. Hicks added, "He was concerned about how his wife would view it. And he wanted me to make sure the newspapers weren’t delivered to the residence that morning." In Manhattan Criminal Court, Hicks was questioned by the defense team on how much the hush money scandal affected Trump. She confessed, "Absolutely I don’t think he wanted anyone in his family to be hurt or embarrassed by anything that was happening on the campaign. He wanted them to be proud of him."

Hicks's testimony included moments of emotion. She sobbed and requested a pause when the defense started its cross-examination so that Trump's lawyers could question her more about her employment at The Trump Organization. She sometimes smiled nicely while gushing about her previous employer and remembering the 'great' campaign she worked on. But when it was time to leave the courtroom, she passed by the defense table with her eyes fixed on the floor rather than on Trump. In connection with the payment of hush money to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election, Trump is accused of 34 felonies of falsifying company documents. Daniels claims that Trump had sexual contact with her, but Trump has pleaded not guilty to all of the accusations.

As per The Guardian, Hicks strengthened a crucial aspect of the prosecution's case that Trump was the source of the $130,000 paid to Stormy Daniels. She questioned the account given to her by Trump—that the former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen had only paid Daniels out of selflessness. She said, "That would be out of character for Michael. I didn’t know him to be an especially selfless person. He was the kind of person to seek credit." She effectively refuted the claims made by the Trump team that Cohen was the mastermind behind the whole hush-money plot.