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Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann weighed in on Hope Hicks’ “devastating” testimony Friday after the ex-Donald Trump spokesperson broke down in tears during the presidential candidate’s hush money trial in New York.
The Manhattan district attorney has charged Trump with 34 criminal counts for allegedly falsifying business records to hide payments to conceal allegations of an extramarital affair with p*rn star Stormy Daniels.
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Hicks began crying as defense attorney Emil Bove started his cross-examination of the former spokesperson, who recalled Trump stating that his onetime personal attorney Michael Cohen had said he’d paid Daniels “out of the kindness of his own heart.” The move, she said, “would be out of character” for Cohen.
On MSNBC, network host Lawrence O’Donnell noted that witnesses sometimes surprise themselves “as much as anyone else” when they get emotional. Weissmann said that he “didn’t really care” why Hicks was crying but rather cared about the substance of her testimony.
“And I also thought about how her crying was kind of icing on the cake for the DA’s office,” Weissmann said.
“I’m not in any way suggesting that they sought it, but her testimony was a body blow to the defense here because she put the guilty knowledge of the hush money payments into Donald Trump’s mouth, and she recounted that testimony to the jurors.”
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He went on to describe Hicks’ testimony as “devastating” in terms of evidence.
“There’s no question that her crying would underscore to the jury, in my view, that she was not there because she wanted to help the government, that she had all loyalty for The Trump Organization,” explained Weissmann, referring to the former president’s company. Weissmann also characterized Hicks as a “very, very difficult witness for the defense” to overcome.
H/T Mediaite
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