Ex-prosecutor reveals the 'most devastating witness' to Trump's hush money defense
April 11, 2024
Former federal prosecutor Harry Litman, who now serves as a legal analyst for the Los Angeles Times, pinpointed one witness he believes will be the "most devastating" in Donald Trump's hush money criminal case.
Speaking to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace on Thursday, Litman addressed longtime Trump loyalist Hope Hicks, who had been with the ex-president from his company into the final weeks of his White House.
Trump, who faces 34 federal indictments in New York over the hush-money scheme in 2016, had few staffers around him at that time in the 2016 campaign, according to experts.
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As investigative reporter Susanne Craig explained, Hicks was the main one.
"I would need to get ahold of him," Craig said of Trump. "Hope Hicks was always the go-between. She was in most meetings. So, she's going to see some of this. I think it will testify to what she says. She's going to have been in the room during some of this."
While Litman agreed that Michael Cohen's taped conversation has highlights, it will be Hicks who will "be a devastating witness."
"She will be so credible, but she's present for all these conversations, and under the rules of evidence, anything Tump says is fair game," he explained. "So, there are the underlying facts that I think he's desperate to hide, but there's just something vivid where we have all been saying for weeks this one won't have such an impact. The latest poll suggests maybe it will."
His reference was to a recent survey of Americans where 64 percent said that they consider the trial to be serious.
"But I just think there's something really theatrical and real at the same time about him in the chair, glowering all day, and here comes Hope Hicks, his former trusted aide, to testify against him. Here's what Susanne had to say about [David] Pecker. It just really drives it home."
On the legal side, Litman said it's clear Trump isn't trying to litigate the facts of the case, but also "he's embarrassed of them. An amazing thing, Trump embarrassed of anything." Instead, Trump is litigating the "themes," according to the expert.
"A theme of bias and victimhood," Litman explained, "especially with the judge and all of New York. That's why they tried to change the venue. I think those rhetorical points will roll over. You'll see next week before we get to the evidence of [a] very contentious jury selection process, where his counsel will say this one and that one can't be fair, and the judge is making rulings against him. That's the refrain you will sound again and again."
See Litman's full comments in the video below or at the link right here.
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