Sabres @ Canadiens 2/21 | NHL Highlights 2024

Related articles

What we know about the ‘outside agitators’ being blamed for campus protests

Police, city and university officials have blamed “outside agitators” for anti-war protests on U.S. campuses. Experts say this type of narrative is frequently used to delegitimize protests.

Hope Hicks’ friend wants Trump to know ‘she’s being forced’ to testify against him



It's not clear what longtime aide Hope Hicks might tell the jury in Donald Trump's hush money case, but a close friend made clear that she's not eager to testify against her former boss.

The former White House official could testify as early as Friday, and while she hasn't given details about what she'll say, several sources close to her made clear that she was frustrated and angry about being called to testify — and described the trial as a waste of time and money.

“This feels like something she’s being forced to do,” one former senior administration official who is close to her told the Washington Post. “She still has warm feelings toward the president and a lot of admiration for him.”

The 35-year-old Hicks, a former Trump Organization staffer who was one of his earliest campaign hires, was "in and out" of an August 2015 meeting at Trump Tower to discuss the National Enquirer's role in identifying and killing damaging stories, according to testimony from former publisher David Pecker.

The Post also contacted Hicks to discuss the newspaper's impending publication of the "Access Hollywood" story in October 2016, which revealed Trump on tape bragging about molesting women, and prosecutors have alleged that recording played a key role in the decision to pay hush money to porn actress Stormy Daniels — which eventually fell under prosecution.

ALSO READ: Noem book describing dog killing is a donation perk at upcoming GOP fundraiser

“She was there for everything, so they are going to ask her questions,” said Hogan Gidley, a friend of Hicks who served as Trump’s principal deputy press secretary. “I know Hope, I talk to Hope, and she wants nothing but the best for Donald Trump and his family.”

Hicks and Trump have not spoken since 2022, when she was called before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, although a former adviser said their relationship remained "cordial."

But the former president and his family were reportedly unhappy with her candor in that testimony.

"[Trump] said something along the lines of, you know, ‘Nobody will care about my legacy if I lose, so that won’t matter — the only thing that matters is winning,'" Hicks told congressional investigators under oath.

The Trump family, especially Ivanka, were especially unhappy with text messages Hicks sent after Jan. 6 that she shared with the committee.

“In one day he ended every future opportunity that doesn’t include speaking engagements at the local Proud Boys chapter," Hicks said in one of those messages.

‘Trump was not a rubber stamp’: Experts claim Trump Org witness just destroyed key defense



A witness in Donald Trump's criminal trial Monday revealed that all personal checks from the ex-president's account were personally signed by him, reporters said.

This includes the "reimbursement" that he sent his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, after he allegedly paid adult film star Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep quiet about a sexual relationship with Trump.

This is according to the testimony from Deborah Tarasoff, the Trump Organization employee who processed the invoices submitted by Cohen for reimbursement. She then cut the checks and stapled them to the top of the invoices.

READ ALSO: Michael Cohen claims Trump took Stormy Daniels hush-money payment as a tax deduction

Tarasoff explained that any check that Trump didn't want to pay would have VOID written over the top in Sharpie. He did it often, and it wasn't unusual. However, the checks for Cohen were signed, she said.

Checks were sent to Trump in Washington via FedEx, Tarasoff continued. An email on Feb. 14, 2017, told her to pay and post the expenses that Cohen had submitted.

This testimony weakens Trump's lawyers' possible argument that he would sign anything that came across his desk.

Speaking to MSNBC, legal analysts Charles Coleman, Tristan Snell and Joyce Vance all agreed that the information the witness provided was harmful to Trump's defense.

"That's critical because what you can't do now if you're Donald Trump's defense attorneys is say that, look, his signature had to go on everything, so he became a rubber stamp for anything and everything in front of him," Coleman explained. "It's important to understand that now we're getting closer and closer to the actual legal legality."

Thus far, he said, the case has been about salacious things — the affair and Trump's comments on the "Access Hollywood" tape, for example.

Now, the trial is turning toward the documents that prove the case.

"Donald Trump can no longer say I was paying Michael Cohen for legal services," Coleman said. "You're paying out of your own personal account. That was a big part of it. It's going to come out as more documents are presented, as well as the why, to conceal another crime. That's also what the prosecution has been doing during the testimony of other witnesses and what it's been putting out."

Vance agreed.

"That's right, she can do that, and she does even more because the real issue in this case is proving what Donald Trump knew, and she has testified that the checks are stapled to invoices, and that's how it goes to Donald Trump for approval," Vance said. "And, you know, as Tristan and Charles were saying, Trump was not a rubber stamp; he was carefully scrutinizing these things."

See the comments from the legal analysts below:


'Not a rubber stamp': Prosecutors proved Trump knowingly signed Cohen's check personally www.youtube.com