Hope Hicks Was Trump's Press Secretary — Now She's Part of His Hush Money Trial
Hope Hicks went from a teen model to public relations to working as President Trump's press secretary. Now she's going to court.
Apr. 15 2024, Published 1:50 p.m. ET
On Jan. 6, 2021, Hope Hicks was texting with Julie Radford, chief of staff and senior advisor to Ivanka Trump, about the riot at the Capitol. Hicks was the counselor to former President Donald Trump and had previously served as the White House director of strategic communications. The then 33-year-old was panicking, but it wasn't because democracy was under attack. She was more concerned about the optics. "We all look like domestic terrorists now," she said to Radford, per The Guardian.
Hicks was very worried about her future job prospects, and for good reason. Since that day, there have been hundreds of convictions handed down to those who participated in the riot. While Hicks wasn't part of the riot, she was with Trump at the time it occurred. It's safe to say the U.S. government is taking this very seriously. Was Hicks worried for nothing? Let's take a look at what she's doing now.
Where is Hope Hicks now? She's going to court!
Hicks is about to find herself in court, but it's as a witness and not a defendant. According to CNN, she is expected to testify during President Trump's hush money trial. In July 2019, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan released documents related to the hush-money probe, per ABC News. There were hundreds of records dating back to 2018 that showed "Hicks, along with Trump, spoke by phone to former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen as Cohen formulated his plan to pay $130,000 to [Stormy] Daniels."
When Hicks testified before Congress in June 2019, she denied knowing about any payouts made to Daniels. The exact details of the calls weren't made public by the search warrants obtained by the FBI, but the timeline makes sense. During that time, Cohen also exchanged texts with two executives at American Media Inc., publisher of The National Enquirer, in which he mentioned the name Keith. It's believed that he was referring to Daniels's lawyer Keith Davidson.
CNN legal analyst Elie Honig went on The Source to talk about the significance of Hicks's testimony during President Trump's trial. He pointed out that Hicks is on pretty steady ground largely because she hasn't publicly said anything negative about the former president. "She is still more or less in Trump's camp," he told host Kaitlan Collins. Honig thinks this lends more credibility to her testimony, which is what the prosecution is looking for.
Hope Hicks is famously private.
Hicks doesn't gravitate towards the limelight. The Hollywood Reporter dropped some fast facts about the former White House communications director and pointed out that she turned down two interviews. One was with The Washington Post which was interested in doing a profile on Hicks. The other was with GQ who reported that she also declined an interview with Olivia Nuzzi in 2016 and instead arranged for a chance for the writer to speak with Trump about Hicks while Hicks was in the room.
If Hicks has a social media account, it isn't public. She isn't on Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, or even LinkedIn. Outside of working for Trump in some capacity, she briefly spent time at Fox Corp. as their chief communications officer in Los Angeles, via Vanity Fair, but that didn't last. Sources in the West Wing said Hicks complained about being bored and was lonely in Los Angeles. Hicks also reportedly said she didn't feel welcomed. This was before Jan. 6 which begs the question, maybe the issue isn't an insurrection.
