Donald Trump Was ‘Concerned’ About How Melania Would ‘View’ Affair Claims

A witness in Donald Trump’s hush money trial has revealed that the former president was concerned about how his wife, Melania Trump, would take the news of his alleged affair with an adult film star and a former Playboy model.

The witness, Trump’s former campaign press secretary, Hope Hicks, made the claim during Friday’s court session, along with other revelations about her former boss’ alleged affairs.

Friday’s court session in Trump’s hush money trial saw a former aide of his, Hicks, take to the stand to testify about her involvement in the Stormy Daniels scandal.

The former president is currently facing charges of falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 payment made to Daniels through his former lawyer, Michael Cohen.

The payment was reportedly paid to the adult film star to hush her after she threatened to go public with her story of her alleged affair with Trump a few days before the 2016 presidential election.

During Hick’s testimony, she claimed that beyond the impact such a story could have had on the billionaire mogul’s presidential bid at the time, Trump was even more worried about his wife, Melania, getting to see the story.

“He was concerned about how it would be viewed by his wife, and he wanted me to make sure the newspapers weren’t delivered to the residence that morning,” the former campaign press secretary told the court.

When asked why Trump was worried about the impact that news of his alleged affairs could have on Melania, Hicks made a shocking reveal, per The Guardian.

The former aide claimed that Trump “really values” his wife’s opinion and seemed to have thought that such a sordid story would rub her the wrong way and estrange him from her.

Hicks said, “[Donald] really values Mrs Trump’s opinion,” adding that it’s “very meaningful to him, he really respects what she has to say.”

She also alleged that, at the time, part of the former president’s priority was to prevent his family from experiencing “hurt or embarrassment” from the goings-on in the campaign.

Elsewhere, during the testimony, she stated that her former boss informed her that Cohen made the hush payment to Daniels out of kindness. However, she found this to be uncharacteristic of Cohen at the time.

Before the trial began a few weeks ago, Trump publicly announced his intention to testify. However, he reversed this stance last Thursday during a conversation with reporters after the day’s court session, citing Judge Juan Merchan’s gag order as the reason preventing him from doing so.

Trump said at the time, “I’m not allowed to testify. I’m under a gag order. I guess, right? I’m not allowed to testify because this judge, who’s totally conflicted, has me under an unconstitutional gag order.”

While it was initially unclear if this was true, Merchan clarified the situation on Friday, saying the former president’s statement was false.

“I want to stress, Mr Trump, that you have an absolute right to testify at trial,” Merchan told the court. That is a constitutional right that will not be denied or abnegated in any way … It is a fundamental right that cannot be infringed upon … the order prohibiting extra-judicial statements does not prevent you from testifying in any way.”

Merchan recently fined Trump $9,000 after finding him in contempt of the gag order for nine instances.

In Friday’s court session, the prosecution urged him to find the former president in contempt over more instances of gag order violations.

While he had previously raised the possibility of Trump facing jail time for any further breaches of his gag order, the prosecution objected to it, arguing that it would impede the progress of the trial.

Instead, they proposed that the billionaire mogul face fines similar to those imposed in the previous contempt ruling, potentially resulting in Trump losing a maximum of $1,000 per violation. A decision on the prosecution’s requests is still pending.

During a previous hearing, Daniels’ attorney, Keith Davidson, testified it was his “understanding” that Trump and the former adult entertainer had had sex when she denied it in a 2018 letter but that the $130,000 he allegedly paid to buy her silence about the affair “wasn’t payoff.”

Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass asked Davidson if he understood at the time shot his client had “in fact had a sexual encounter with Donald Trump at some point?”

“That was my understanding,” Davidson replied. He then proceeded to clarify that the $130k payment Daniels received to silence her about the alleged affair “wasn’t payoff, and it wasn’t hush money.”

Davidson said he’d prefer to describe the remuneration as a “consideration.”