Anticipation builds about upcoming witness whose relationship with Trump turned 'rocky'
Donald Trump's long-time friend David Pecker, the former chief of AMI/National Enquirer, detailed their relationship and efforts to work together to help Trump get elected in 2016. The defense team never went after him nor questioned whether he was lying. There's another witness who will likely be similar.
Speaking to MSNBC on Friday after Pecker finished his testimony, political analyst John Heilemann said that during the 2016 campaign, the only two people who were backstage were his assistant Rhona Graff and Hope Hicks. Trump never even spoke out about the likes of Steve Bannon or Paul Manafort.
"They were the people who had the most access to him. The one who ran his life in different respects, one more administrative, one more in politics, but I think she will be a fascinating witness," he said.
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Hicks occupies an important place for Trump "psychically" because she, too, had access to things that even Graff did not, according to some experts.
"Hope is more at that nexus where politics, scandal, law, staff, internal politics were involved and came together in communications," summed up Heilemann. "She knows the inside of his head better than literally anybody."
Former top Justice Department prosecutor Andrew Weissmann said that Trump's team tried to impugn Pecker's memory at some times while calling him a liar at others. Weissmann called it "odd" to go from "truths " to "he doesn't remember well" to "he's a liar."
When it comes to Hicks, Weissmann anticipates that it will be interesting to see "how much she's going to corroborate or where she doesn't back him up."
He said that the defense also rightly tries to get witnesses to talk about the defendant as a good boss.
"You saw the prosecution do that with David Pecker because it was useful to say this guy who is such a liar, he loves this guy," said Weissmann. "It will be interesting where Hope Hicks is on this because there was both a deep loyalty and then there was a very rocky end."
See the clip below or at the link here.
Speculation builds about Trump witness whose relationship with ex-president turned 'rocky' youtu.be