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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: One of
former President Trump's most
senior aides took the stand

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today during his hush money
trial in New York. Hope
Hicks served as Mr. Trump's

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press secretary during the
2016 campaign and was his White
House communications director.

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On the stand, she detailed
how Trump and his inner
circle handled the revelations

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about alleged extramarital
affairs and the payments
made to bury those stories.

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Andrea Bernstein is covering
the former president's
legal battles for NPR and

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was in the courthouse
today, and she joins us now.

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Andrea, so nice
to see you again.

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During the prosecution's
questioning today,

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they delved into what
happened in the campaign
when that infamous

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"Access Hollywood" tape
dropped. What did we learn from
Hope Hicks about that today?

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ANDREA BERNSTEIN, NPR
Contributor: Right. So she was
the person to first hear about
that from The Washington Post,

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which asked her for a
comment on the story they
were about to run. And
she -- there was an e-mail

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shown that she had sent to
campaign leadership where she
had suggested, deny, deny, deny.

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And as she read that on
the stand, she sort of
laughed, because she realized

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that they weren't going to
be able to do that. And she
talked about how she went

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upstairs and there was a sort
of a campaign brain trust
preparing Trump for the debate.

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She saw all of them,
asked them what they were
talking about, and when
he learned about the tape,

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he said, "Well, that
doesn't sound like
something that I would say."

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But, obviously, it was.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And that story
is being told to jurors because

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it helps set the template
for how the campaign then
had to go into panic mode,

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and then Stormy Daniels'
story becomes even
more fraught for them.

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What did we learn from
her about that revelation?

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ANDREA BERNSTEIN: Right. So the
campaign settles on saying that
it was locker room talk. And

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Trump actually apologized. And
there was a video played in the

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courtroom of him apologizing. It
was actually played twice today.

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But over the next two weeks,
the end of the campaign, all
of these allegations come up,

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and then it's the Friday
before the election. And
The Wall Street Journal
sends Hope Hicks an

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e-mail about a story it's
planning to run about
this agreement we have
been hearing so much with

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Karen McDougal and "The National
Enquirer," the former Playboy
model, to keep her story quiet.

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And they also talk about
Stormy Daniels. And what is
so interesting is that Hicks

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goes to three people
involved, David Pecker, the
former publisher of "The

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National Enquirer." Trump, the
candidate, and Michael Cohen,

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and they all essentially
tell her there is
nothing to the story.

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And so she goes to The Wall
Street Journal and she says to
them, it is absolutely untrue,

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which, of course, is not the
case, as jurors heard last
week from David Pecker himself.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And what
did she detail about Cohen's

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then subsequent negotiations
with Stormy Daniels?

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ANDREA BERNSTEIN: Well, she
didn't know a lot about it,
but there was very interesting

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testimony about how, when this
story actually breaks, Trump is
in the White House, and Michael

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Cohen -- The Wall
Street Journal, the same
reporters do another story.

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It's now over a year later.
They detail everything
regarding Stormy Daniels. And

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Trump tells her that Michael
Cohen did this on his own
out of the goodness of

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his heart. The prosecution
asked, does that sound
like the Michael Cohen you

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know? And she basically said
no. She did not know him
to be a charitable person.

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And she sort of sniffed out
the story, but she left the
White House not long after,

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went to FOX News, before
actually coming back
to work in the White
House for Trump in 2020.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: And what did
the -- what do Trump's legal

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team do? How do they
handle a witness like her?

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Because this is someone
who's very, very close
to the former president.

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ANDREA BERNSTEIN: Right.

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Her testimony was clear.
She seemed to have very good
recall about all kinds of

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events. It was at the
very beginning of her
cross-examination,
which was brief,

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in which the defense was trying
to suggest that, well, it was
her job to try to influence the

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media coverage. That's
what campaigns do, that
Trump at the time was
concerned about Melania.

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She talked about Trump telling
her to block newspaper delivery
at the residence. But at

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the very beginning of
her testimony, when she
was talking about her
early work for the Trump

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Organization, she became
overwhelmed. She started to
cry. She had to take a break.

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It just seemed a lot
for this former aide,

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extremely loyal, to be
testifying at the criminal
trial of her former boss.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Andrea
Bernstein of NPR, thank
you so much, as always.

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ANDREA BERNSTEIN: Thank you.