Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Trump’s Closest Aide to Testify AGAINST HIM at Criminal Trial

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

The former 2016 Trump campaign secretary Trump affectionately calls “Hopey” Hicks IS ABOUT TO BE A WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION against him in the upcoming NY criminal trial. Michael Popok explains that Hicks —a credible Jan6 Committee witness as well— will testify about her 2016 phone calls to set up the payments to Stormy Daniels and likely her conversions with Trump acknowledging he endorsed the plan to pay her off to keep it from the voters. Sign up at https://MoinkBox.com/LEGALAF and get FREE BACON for a YEAR Visit https://meidastouch.com for more! Join us on Patreon: patreon.com/legalaf Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown Lights On with Jessica Denson: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/lights-on-with-jessica-denson On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We got new reporting about a key witness against Donald Trump, his former communications director and the person that was responsible as his campaign press secretary in 2016, Hope Hicks is going to testify against Donald Trump in the April 15th start of the Stormy Daniels hush money cover up business record fraud criminal case in New York. The person that Donald Trump used to affectionately call Hopi or Hopester is gonna testify against Donald Trump, presumably about a series of phone calls she had involving Donald Trump, Michael Cohen, the National Enquirer and payments that were made to Stormy Daniels in a way that only Hope Hicks

as a fly on the wall in those phone calls could testify. Now let me tell you about Hope Hicks to remind you of who she is because she's also testified in front of the Jan 6 committee against Donald Trump. So, but now we have the new reporting that Hopi, Hopi Hicks is going to testify for the people of the state of New York against Donald Trump and face her old boss. Now, let's start with this case, the case in front of Judge Murchon that starts on the 15th of April. There, it's about her wearing the hat

of being the 2016 campaign press secretary for Donald Trump. Recall that this entire case is about a coverup, according to the people of the state of New York, the Manhattan DA, that was created by Donald Trump in order to stop negative news stories about his sexual behavior and misconduct from coming out into the news after the Access Hollywood hot mic tape had already come out where he said out loud that he was willing to sexually assault and abuse women and get away with it because he was a celebrity. Having that having come out as his own personal

October surprise in 2016 in his fight against Hillary Clinton for the presidency, he didn't want any more of these sexual misconduct events coming out. And that is the, that's where Hope Hicks comes in because as the press secretary, she, according to insiders, testified to the grand jury in New York back in 2023 as a key witness leading to the indictment of Donald Trump that she participated in not one but two telephone conversations involving Michael Cohen.

Michael Cohen at the time, yes, now he's on the Midas Touch Network, but at the time he was the consulier and fixer for Donald Trump, a lawyer for Donald Trump, who along with Donald Trump and taking directions from him led the catch and kill program, which is what they euphemistically called, paying off women who claimed to have had sex with Donald Trump to ensure that their stories didn't hit the media.

They did it through the National Enquirer, which was run by a friend of Donald Trump's named David Pecker. I'm not making this up. And David Pecker combined with Michael Cohen and Donald Trump and Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the Trump organization, conspired together to pay off these women,

as the indictment alleges, hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to buy their story and then bury it, catch it and kill it. In order to tell the complete story to the jury, they need people like Hope Hicks, who was on at least two phone calls involving Michael Cohen and David Pecker

of the National Enquirer, and presumably at the instruction of Donald Trump, because she was his press secretary about the payments to Stormy Daniels. That's what the phone calls are about. That is what we presume among other things, Hope Hicks is going to testify against Donald Trump at the trial consistent with her grand jury testimony. Secret, yes, but we know a lot about what Hope Hicks said from insiders in there.

So at least two phone calls that Hope Hicks will be a credible factual witness against Donald Trump involving the payoff of Stormy Daniels through Michael Cohen, Donald Trump, the National Enquirer, and the like is going to be part of her testimony, if not the bulk of her testimony. And she'll be able to corroborate then the Manhattan DA's working trial theory, theme of the case, that Donald Trump devised this plan in order to tamp down on all of these sexual misconduct stories in order to win the election.

And that the group, including Hope X, freaked out when the Access Hollywood tape, which will not be played for the jury based on a prior judge ruling, but will be discussed in front of the jury in terms of its content. When that secret recorded hot mic moment for Donald Trump when he was having a conversation with Billy Bush, then the host of Access Hollywood in the trailer. Yes, it was several years before 2016, but it didn't hit until the October before the election. They freaked out. Hope Hicks will, I assume, testify about the despair in the Trump campaign and them lurching from a strategy to strategy to try to fix it and insulate their candidate

and win the election, which they ultimately did. Which is why Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan DA, is not wrong when he says this was the first case of election interference, but it was Donald Trump interfering with the election and getting himself elected. So Hope Hicks, you may recall, has tremendous amount of credibility in this case. Of all the people that are going to take the stand, she has almost zero baggage and a high reservoir of goodwill and credibility as a fact witness because she never completely

left the inner circle of Donald Trump. At least he didn't bash her incessantly the way he did Alyssa Farah and other people that served in media or press relationships. He seemed to have liked Hopi Hopster. Well, Hopi Hopster is now gonna probably be one of the final nails in his coffin. And her credibility is high. Let's compare it to people that come into the courtroom

with some credibility baggage from prior misconduct or prior court proceedings. Michael Cohen, Allen Weisselberg, and the rest, but not Hope Hicks. Hope Hicks testified in front of the Jan 6 committee, ultimately truthfully and against Donald Trump. We have a clip just so you can see. I'll frame it here. Here, she's talking about the fact that she disagreed with her boss, Donald Trump, and told him to his face, speaking truth to power, that he had won the election or that had been stolen from him because of fraud. And she challenged him on that and said she would not abide that.

She eventually left the administration before the end of the term, the end of January 20th. Here's a clip from Hope Hicks, Jan 6th, you can see who I'm talking about and the type of gravitas or credibility she brings to whatever she testifies about. Let's play the clip. Even since our last hearing, the select committee has obtained testimony from new witnesses who've come forward to tell us about their conversations with ex-president Trump on this topic. Here is one of his senior advisors, Hope Hicks. Seeing evidence of fraud on a scale that would have impacted the outcome of the election and I was becoming increasingly concerned that we were damaging, we were damaging his legacy. What did the president say in response

to what you just described? He said something along the lines of, nobody will care about my legacy if I lose. So that won't matter. The only thing that matters is, is winning. All right, that's her pitch. Now she's not going to testify about those things. But it just shows you when when the when the Manhattan DA is done walking her through her background, and the jury hears that Donald Trump hired her. Donald Trump

used her throughout the 26th campaign, that she was the campaign press secretary, that he liked her so much he took Hope Hicks with him to the White House when he won, that she was there for four more years with him, that she was there through Jan 6, that she testified to the Jan 6 committee. You see where the credibility comes in? I mean, I'm not trying to bolster her testimony, but the jury is going to come away with, this person seems very honest and credible. What does she have to say about this particular case?

I mean, that's my artist rendering of juries. So that's Hope Hicks, as opposed to Donald Trump being able to say, or the lawyers being able to say an opening statement in that case for Donald Trump. Hope Hicks is a self-angrandizing, she just wants to buy, sell books. She was scorned because I fired her. He can't say anything about her. Hopie, Hopester, the Hickster, whatever he called her. He liked her a lot. I saw somebody comparing her to Ivanka Trump in the kind of relationship he had with her. That's the person that now is going to bring the truth into that courtroom about what happened

in the Trump campaign when the Access Hollywood tape happened and the phone calls that she participated in with the National Enquirer and others, including Michael Cohen at Donald Trump's behalf to implement the Catch and Kill program and pay off Stormy Daniels, which is at the heart, the very heart of this case. She may even testify, and I'm speculating on this one, but she may even testify about conversations she had with Donald Trump about the Catch and Kill program. If that happens, if that's her testimony, put a fork in Donald Trump.

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and testify to the jury, look them in the eye and say, she had a conversation with Donald Trump in which he confirmed his knowledge of the catch and kill program she had a conversation with Donald Trump in which he confirmed his knowledge of the catch and kill program, which is the heart of the criminal indictment. He's done. And that's what the Manhattan DA needs. He needs somebody to take that ball over the one yard line into the end zone. Michael Cohen can only go so far. We know Michael Cohen's prior testimony. He's been very public about it. He doesn't have as many, you know, there's tape recordings of Donald Trump with Michael Cohen, which will be very helpful to

the Manhattan DA. A lot of talking in code, a lot of talking in as Michael talks about it, mafia speak. But Hope Hicks is about his white bread. You know, she's mayonnaise on white bread. She doesn't talk in Mafia speak or patois. She's going to look the jury in the eye and say, I had a conversation with my boss, Donald Trump, and we had a conversation where he acknowledged he knew about the Catch and Kill program. If that's her testimony, then we don't need all the rest. As I said, among all the people that will testify, not only does she have the least amount of credibility baggage, I don't think she has any baggage whatsoever. I think having testified to the Jan 6 committee as compellingly as she did is only to her benefit and bolsters her credibility

in front of the jury. And I got to think that since the Manhattan DA has decided that they want to put her on the witness list and will have her testify, it's not because they think she's going to go badly for them. She's not gonna backfire. Now look, I've had plenty of witnesses in trial that I thought were going to be amazing, and they weren't, and they crapped the bed. It happens. And some other witnesses that I thought were gonna be,

oh, this is gonna be a white knuckle, I kinda need this person for this fact issue, but it's gonna be, I'm holding on for dear life, and they were amazing. It happens, you know, and then other witnesses fall into the categories you think they're going to fall into. But Hope Hicks, I think could be the home run in front of this New York grand jury of 12 people

to try to convict Donald Trump. I really do. We'll continue to follow what happens as we hear about more witnesses. Look, we know the lineup so far. It's going to be Michael Cohen front and center, Hope Hicks front and center, David Pecker for the National Enquirer front and center,

probably Allen Weisselberg, although he's a twice convicted felon and just pled guilty to perjury, but that can be used to the advantage of the prosecution as well, since he was the money man for Donald Trump taking orders from Donald Trump directly. And then there's some audio recordings, there's some other people in the Trump organization

who will corroborate what Michael Cohen has to say, some lower level vice presidents that Donald Trump can never remember the name of, they'll testify for the prosecution, witnesses for the prosecution. So I've given you a long list already of witnesses for the prosecution. There'll be another dozen that we haven't even anticipated that testified before the grand jury. And then you'll have to look at on the balance of this, who testifies on behalf of Donald Trump.

Now he doesn't have an obligation in our criminal justice system to testify at all, right? He's presumed innocent and the burden is on the prosecution to prove beyond a reasonable doubt and get a 12-0 verdict from the jury in New York. And they may not put on a witness. They may just defend the case through cross-examination of the witnesses for the prosecution. I get it. But who will ultimately support any part of Donald Trump's story? We will follow on Legal AF. Yes, find out why we called it that. Come

join us on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Eastern time on the Midas Touch YouTube channel. And then you can follow me on hot takes like this one. If you want to really get into the molecular level of the law that we're talking about when we do hot takes in a Legal AF, join our Patreon, Legal AF. It's patreon.com slash Legal AF. And you'll get tutorials on the law, not like law school, but you'll get them in a way that's very, very interesting.

Sort of a Ted talk has a baby with a law school and we put it all together on our Patreon. So until my next legal AF, until my next hot tech, until my next Patreon video, this is Michael Popak reporting. Heary, heary, legal AF law breakdown is now in session. video. This is Michael Popak reporting.