Hope Hicks did not so much walk to the witness box as glide.
With highlighted curls splayed across her shoulders and her cheek bones picked out dramatically with blusher, she looked every inch the communications professional an confidant that she had once been for Donald Trump.
But the mask slipped under the steady gaze of her former boss as prosecutor Matthew Colangelo introduced himself.
She gave a fragile smile and asked if she is close enough to the microphone. ‘I’m really nervous,’ she admitted.
Trump twisted his head to watch as the first of the prosecution’s major witnesses, one who was at the heart of his 2016 campaign, began giving evidence.
Donald Trump watched intently as his nervous former press secretary Hope Hicks gave evidence in court on Friday. She avoided lookin at him throughout her time on the stand
Trump and Hicks in happier times, seen here outside the Oval Office as they leave for Cleveland, Ohio, on March 29, 2018
If he feared her testimony he gave no sign of it, simply staring intently at the woman who worked her way up through his company, on to his campaign, and then into the White House.
He leaned back in his leather chair, flanked by his lawyers, as he listened to Hicks establish her credentials.
There was no poker faces in the public gallery. A collective gasp circulated when the prosecution announced Hicks as its next witness.
And the importance of her evidence was only underlined by the fact that it was Colangelo, who stepped down from a senior role at the Department of Justice to join the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, asking the questions
The weight of the moment seemed to catch Hicks unaware, despite living in the media spotlight for much of her time with Trump.
She gave another watery smile as she adjusted to the sound of her amplified voice. ‘Its going to take a second to get used to it,’ she added.
It was a reminder that she had had little in the way of a career before being drawn into Trump’s orbit as a 26-year-old and is still only 35.
In that time she had become one of Trump’s most trusted advisers, elevated to White House director of communications.
The result was a conflicted witness still deeply attached to the defendant and who delivered her evidence with her eyes fixed on the lawyers, unable to look at Trump.
Trump showed little reaction to most of her testimony. He swapped words with his lawyer Todd Blanche and scribbled on a legal pad. He could be seen sucking on throat sweets too
Hicks in the State Dining Room of the White House in 2018 with Press Secretary Sarah Sanders
She spoke warmly of him, his family and her time at his side. She praised his media savvy, people skills and ability to multitask, before the questions got to the more awkward business of Playboy models, infidelities and hush money payments.
‘He’s always doing many things at once,’ she said.
While she fidgeted and gave a nervy little gulp, Trump gave no sign of warmth. He sat, eyes half closed, looking unimpressed.
If anyone knows where the bodies are buried, it is Hicks. As his gatekeeper she had a ringside seat at scandal after scandal.
On the stand she came across as loyal, speaking fondly about the former president’s family and her time at his side.
They are no longer close.
She admitted that they had not spoken in two years, the result of a rift when some of her messages were released during an investigation into his efforts to cling to power after losing the 2020 election.
She had left the White House six days after the Jan.6 riot in what she said was a long-planned moved; but her messages suggested she was furious with her boss.
Press aide Margo Martin (far right) and legal adviser Boris Epshteyn (center) accompanied Trump to court on Friday. Campaign adviser Jason Miller is obscured by court officers
The trial is being held at Manhattan Criminal Court and is expected to last into June
At times though Trump was more animated.
He whispered to his defense attorney Todd Blanche, scribbled on a legal pad and popped a throat sweet in his mouth, looking for all the world that he was stuck in a boring business meeting.
He adopted an air of indifference when the infamous ‘Access Hollywood’ tape came up, in which he made lewd comments.
Hicks described how the usual suspects of Speaker Paul Ryan and 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney had expressed their outrage—people, she said, who always felt the need to ‘weigh.’
Trump smirked at the mention of his Republican enemies, wobbling his head to one side and then the other.
Despite her obvious nerves, Hicks delivered her testimony in clear, concise answers. She described the campaign’s damage-control efforts amid a slew of allegations of unflattering sexual behavioural with a remarkable degree of recall.
For six years, Hicks was never far from Trump, whether on the campaign or at the White House
She broke down at the end of her testimony and the judge called for a brief break
It was an insider account of events that could help convict the former president. The prosecution will seize on what she said about fixer Michael Cohen, and how he was unlikely to have been acting alone when he went about paying hush money.
And they will also use her words to show that Trump was intent on trying to silence women like Stormy Daniels because they might damage his election chances rather than to protect his family
‘I think Mr. Trump’s opinion was it was better to be dealing with it now, and it would’ve been bad to have that story come out before the election,’ she said.
In the end it was all too much for a tearful Hicks. She looked drained, spent.
As the defense began on her cross-examination, she asked for a moment to compose herself, turning away from the court and letting her hair fall across her face.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said amid sobs as the judge called for a break.
Then, when the day was finished, she walked briskly out of court, keeping her head turned away from the man she had served for six years.
