Former Trump aide Hope Hicks is being called to testify in the criminal hush money case facing defendant Donald Trump and CNN legal analyst Elie Honig said it could be especially damaging for him.
The ex-aide could be an ideal witness, said Honig, as she is a trusted member of Trump's inner circle.
"She's potentially a very powerful witness for prosecutors," said Honig. "First of all, it appears she was part of these crucial conversations when Michael Cohen and Donald Trump are talking about paying off Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal and importantly, why that's one of the key questions here were they paying her to silence or in relation to the election, or just for personal reasons."
However, when questioned by the House Judiciary Committee in 2018, Hicks appeared to be aloof when prompted to respond to Stormy Daniels' payoff tidbits.
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“Again, I had no knowledge of Stormy Daniels other than to say she was going to be mentioned in the story amongst people that were shopping stories around,” Hicks said at the time. “There were no specifics offered by the reporter, and I didn’t have any other information other than what was being relayed to me by the reporter.”
Trump is facing 34 counts of falsifying business records related to his order to have attorney Michael Cohen wire $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who had alleged she and Trump engaged in a sexual relationship.
Honig believes Hicks' testimony holds incredible weight, particularly when paired against Michael Cohen's.
Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for tax evasion, making false statements to a federally insured bank, and campaign finance violations that related to the hush money scheme that he accuses Trump of ordering him to carry out.
Once a devoted mouthpiece to Trump, Cohen has become one of his most vociferous critics.
"She's perfectly situated as a witness for a prosecutor," he said of Hicks. "She's not like Michael Cohen; she hasn't spent her whole life talking negatively about Trump. She hasn't split from Donald Trump."
He added: "So if you trust her testimony and we know they have her testimony because they put her in the grand jury; if you trust her testimony as a prosecutor, she could be a game changer."
