Takeaways from day 11 of Trump’s New York hush money trial with Hope Hicks

With tears and an open admission of nerves, Hope Hicks, a former adviser to Donald Trump, has appeared on the witness stand in New York City, where she was called to testify in the former United States president’s criminal hush money trial.

Friday marked day 11 in the trial, and Hicks was arguably the highest-profile witness to testify so far.

Yes, Trump is allowed to testify

The day’s legal drama began even before Trump entered the courtroom, as the former president sought to backtrack on comments he had made the evening before.

On Thursday, Trump had falsely told reporters, “I’m not allowed to testify.”

But as he returned to court on Friday, Trump attempted to clarify his earlier statement: “The gag order is not to testify. The gag order stops me from talking about people and responding when they say things about me.”

Thursday’s comments, however, remained Judge Juan Merchan’s first order of business as he took the bench.

“The order restricting extrajudicial statements does not prevent you from testifying in any way,” Merchan said on Friday.

Emil Bove, from Trump’s defence team, attempted to get Daus to admit to “gaps in the handling of this data”. He pointed out that the events in question happened in 2016 — and Daus received the phone to examine in 2023.

Then, another witness from the district attorney’s office took the stand: paralegal Georgia Longstreet. She spoke to evidence gathered from Trump’s social media accounts, including a post from 2016 complaining about the level of support he received from women voters.

Hope Hicks takes the witness stand

The third witness of the day was the most anticipated: Hicks, a former member of Trump’s inner circle.

At age 26, after working for Trump’s daughter Ivanka, Hicks was handpicked to be his press secretary as he launched his 2016 presidential bid.

Prosecutors subpoenaed her to testify about the inner workings of the campaign and the Trump Organization.

Hicks testified she thought Trump “might be joking” by naming her his press secretary. But she explained she was quickly travelling to states like Iowa, on the campaign trail with the then-candidate.

She explained that Trump was very involved in the day-to-day media strategy of his campaign.

“I would say that Mr Trump was responsible,” she said of his authority over press relations. “He knew what he wanted to say and how he wanted to say it, and we were all just following his lead.”

Hicks reflects on Access Hollywood tape

Much of her testimony, however, revolved around an audio recording known as the Access Hollywood tape, which captured Trump bragging about “grabbing” women by the genitalia.

Hicks explained she first became aware of the recording when a Washington Post reporter emailed her a transcript.

“I was concerned, very concerned,” she said, testifying that she encouraged the Trump campaign to “deny, deny, deny”.

The tape became public in October 2016, one month before that year’s presidential election. In the aftermath, Hicks said Trump was concerned about how his wife Melania would react.

Trump pays gag order fine

Friday was the deadline for Trump to pay a $9,000 fine for nine violations of his gag order, resulting from a ruling earlier in the week.

But the former president discharged his fine on Thursday, with two cashier cheques: one for $2,000 and another for $7,000.

That was not the end of the matter, though. As Friday’s court proceedings wound to a close before the weekend recess, prosecutors petitioned the judge for the ability to question Trump about the gag order violations.

Under the order, Trump is barred from speaking about jurors, witnesses, court staff and other people involved in the trial in a way that might affect court proceedings.

But Judge Merchan brushed aside the prosecutors’ request, on the basis that it could unfairly bias the jury.