New court documents released from the Southern District of New York revealed that Hope Hicks and Donald Trump were both involved with the hush-money payments given to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
The information released were documents related to the search warrant for the campaign finance violations that former Trump fixer Michael Cohen pled guilty to. They were supposed to be fully unredacted, however, dozens of pages and names remain redacted.
"The government has effectively concluded its investigation of (1) who, besides Michael Cohen, was involved in and may be criminally liable for the two campaign finance violations to which Cohen pled guilty [redacted]; and (2) whether certain individuals, [redacted], made false statements gave false testimony or otherwise obstructed justice in connection with this investigation [redacted]," the documents revealed.
"It says I have learned in the days following the 'Access Hollywood' video Cohen exchanged a series of calls, text messages, and emails with Keith Davidson, at the time he was Stormy Daniels' attorney," an FBI agent wrote in the search warrant documents. "David Pecker and Dylan Howard of American Media, the publisher of the "National Enquirer," Donald Trump and Hope Hicks who was press secretary for Trump's campaign."
He went on to say that based on the timing of the calls and content of text messages and emails, "I believe some of these communications concerned the need to prevent Clifford, (a.k.a. Stormy Daniels), from going public. Particularly in the wake of the 'Access Hollywood' story."
The documents then describe some phone calls beginning Oct. 8, 2016, including calls with Donald Trump for over four minutes, according to toll records the FBI was able to obtain from Cohen's phone. Then there were a series of calls between Cohen and Hicks following conversations that occurred between Cohen and others at the "National Enquirer" and the president.
There was also a wire transfer referenced on Oct. 27, days prior to the 2016 election. It was a payment sent from Cohen to Davidson to be given to Stormy Daniels.
On Oct. 28, 2016, immediately after Cohen wired the $130,000 hush money payment to Daniels’ attorney, and confirmed it was received, Cohen had another phone call with Trump, according to the FBI agent.
Under oath, Hicks testified that she could not recall the phone calls.
You can read some of the excerpts below: