Donald Trump threw one of his online tantrums on Friday night, turning to his social media platform to whine incessantly about Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney investigating the former president’s hush money scandal. To hear the former president tell it, Bragg is a “racist” who’s being “pushed” by Democrats, journalists, and the Justice Department to pursue the case.
None of this made any sense, though we can probably surmise what prompted the Republican’s complaints. Last week, The New York Times reported that Kellyanne Conway, who briefly managed Trump’s 2016 campaign before working in the White House, had met with prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office as part of the investigation into the hush money controversy. Overnight, the Times added that Hope Hicks has now done the same thing.
Hope Hicks, a trusted aide to Donald J. Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign, met with the Manhattan district attorney’s office on Monday — the latest in a string of witnesses to be questioned by prosecutors as they investigate the former president’s involvement in paying hush money to a porn star. The appearance of Ms. Hicks, who was seen walking into the Manhattan district attorney’s office in the early afternoon, represents the latest sign that the prosecutors are in the final stages of their investigation.
According to the report, which has not been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, Hicks is “at least the seventh witness to meet with prosecutors” since Bragg convened a grand jury in January.
At first blush, Hicks, like Conway, might seem like an unexpected witness in this case, but the Times’ account point to court records from Michael Cohen’s federal case, which noted phone calls Hicks participated in, first with Trump and Cohen on the day they learned Stormy Daniels wanted money, and then again with Cohen the day after the illicit payment.
“Prosecutors are likely to want to know whether she was privy to any conversations or other information about Mr. Cohen’s dealings with Ms. Daniels’ representatives or how the hush money payment was arranged,” the article added.
Some might see reports like these and assume that Hicks, after years of working closely with Trump, will answer questions in a way her former boss likes, but let’s not forget that her loyalties have not been limitless.
After the 2020 election, for example, Hicks rejected the Big Lie, much to the chagrin of the then-president. Soon after, during the Jan. 6 attack, Hicks told a fellow aide that “we all look like domestic terrorists now.”
There’s no reason to assume, in other words, that she’d be someone who would simply toe the party line when speaking with prosecutors.
As for the underlying controversy, in case anyone needs a refresher let’s revisit our earlier coverage and review how we arrived at this point.
In a normal political environment, it would’ve been a career-ending scandal. Then-candidate Trump, in the run-up to Election Day 2016, allegedly paid illegal hush money to Daniels, a prominent porn actress, in the hopes of keeping secret an alleged extramarital affair. The Republican’s fixer took the lead in orchestrating the illegal payment. Cohen was ultimately charged, prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to prison, even as his former client was rewarded with the presidency. It’s long been an open question as to why Trump wasn’t also charged in the case. If the latest reporting is correct, the door isn’t just open to a possible indictment, prosecutors have also spoken to prominent members of his inner circle. As for the former president’s response to these developments, he’s denied any wrongdoing and tried to push back against the advancing investigation, but he’s also struggled to come up with anything persuasive. This post is a revised version of our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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