Hope Hicks, a former White House aide and longtime advisor to Donald Trump, broke down in tears while on the stand witness Friday in the former president's hush-money criminal trial.
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Her voice cracked as she began answering questions in the afternoon from defense lawyer Emil Bove, who had asked her whether the Trump Organization created the position of communications director to persuade her to join the company in October 2014.
After answering "yes," Hicks grabbed a tissue and turned to her left while sitting on the witness stand. She turned her face and body away from the courtroom audience.
"Ms. Hicks, do you need a break?" the trial judge, Juan Merchan, asked. Yes, please," she responded in a cracked voice, while facing away from the judge.
After the judge announced a break just before 3 p.m., Hicks walked across the courtroom, passing by Trump without looking at him.
Hicks is a key witness in the trial, potentially linking Trump directly to what prosecutors call an election-influencing scheme to purchase a porn star's silence in the days before the 2016 presidential election.
On the stand in the chilly 15th-floor downtown Manhattan courtroom, she said she was testifying pursuant to a subpoena in the historic case. Prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office allege Trump falsified 34 business records in order to cover up an illegal $130,000 hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.
The payment, delivered by Trump's ex-personal attorney and former fixer Michael Cohen, was wired to Daniels 11 days before the 2016 presidential election to buy her silence over a 2006 sexual encounter with Trump, according to records shown as evidence in the trial.
Trump's lawyers have claimed the payment was not an illegal campaign contribution, and that it was made to avoid personal embarrassment.
But Hicks — Trump's 2016 campaign press secretary — testified about working with Trump and Cohen as the campaign responded to media inquiries about the scandal.