Norman Eisen is a CNN legal analyst and editor of “Trying Trump: A Guide to His First Election Interference Criminal Trial.” He served as counsel to the House Judiciary Committee for the first impeachment and trial of then-President Donald Trump. The views expressed in this commentary are his own.
It’s a cliché to say that electricity surged through a courtroom — but it did when Hope Hicks took the stand Friday morning for her testimony in the election interference trial of former President Donald Trump.
In an overflow room of the courthouse where members of the public watch the proceedings, audible gasps were reported. Even Hicks, who was the Trump campaign’s press secretary for the 2016 presidential election at issue in the case, seemed to feel the significance of the moment. Experienced, battle-hardened communications veteran that she is, she began her testimony by saying she was nervous. Who from Trump world wouldn’t be when appearing for the prosecution to testify against “the boss” who has a criminal conviction at stake.
Other than Trump and those in his immediate circle, I probably have spent as much time as anyone here in the courtroom discussing the events at issue in the trial with Hicks. That is because as special counsel for the first Trump impeachment, I took her testimony on the alleged 2016 election influence scheme. As it became devastatingly clear in court Friday, she is a Trump loyalist who nevertheless implicated him directly in the alleged wrongdoing in an utterly believable way.
That is why Hicks is so important to prosecutors as they seek to prove their case, and during her testimony, they rapidly got to the heart of the matter. Hicks provided a gripping account of the impact of the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape on Trump’s campaign, which in turn sets up the so-called hush money payments to Stormy Daniels – who has alleged she had an affair with the former president – that is at the center of the charges in this case.
Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying businesses records concerning the payments. (He pleaded not guilty to the charges and denies the affair with Daniels). On early October 8, 2016, The Washington Post broke the news of a recording of Trump speaking with the then-host of the TV show “Access Hollywood” saying, “I just start kissing them [women]. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ’em by the p***y. You can do anything.”
Hicks explained that the impact of the tape’s release was devastating in and outside the campaign. A telling detail she shared Friday: The public impact was so dominant that the initial 36 hours of coverage pushed a category 4 hurricane that was about to make landfall on the East Coast out of the news. Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo lingered for a bit over his questioning on the anecdote, and with good reason. Hicks’ implication was that this was a category 5 hurricane — or higher. That explains why Trump and his campaign could not afford another damaging sex scandal in the immediate aftermath of the tape.
Another devastating blow came at the very end of Hicks’ direct testimony when she revealed a stunning trifecta: that, while president, Trump had admitted to her that he knew his then-fixer Michael Cohen had paid Daniels, that Trump attempted to blame Cohen and that Hicks did not believe him. She also stated that Trump felt it was better to be dealing with it after the election than beforehand. She appeared so distraught — presumably about throwing her former boss under the bus — that she then began crying.
When I took Hicks’ testimony for the impeachment proceedings, I found her to be a compelling witness, and the same was true Friday. The jury ate her words up, with even those who usually take close notes neglecting their pen and paper in favor of watching her.
The only person in the courtroom who was not consistently attentive was the one who had the most at stake: the defendant. Trump appeared to nod off repeatedly, including during Hicks’ testimony about how she first learned of the Daniels story. It seemed to me that he was doing more than just, as he claimed, closing “my beautiful blue eyes” to “take it ALL in!!!” Asleep or awake, for Trump, Hicks’ testimony was a nightmare.
