New York Daily News

Yet another top Don aide visits the DA’s office

- BY HARRY PARKER AND MOLLY CRANE-NEWMAN

Ex-White House Communicat­ions Director Hope Hicks visited the Manhattan district attorney’s office on Monday as prosecutor­s’ criminal probe into former President Donald Trump intensifie­s.

The Daily News spotted the longtime Trump aide leaving the office with her lawyer about 4:50 p.m. She rushed into a waiting SUV and declined to take questions.

Hicks (bottom) is the latest witness to meet with prosecutor­s as their long-running probe into Trump ramps up. Prosecutor­s are presenting evidence to a grand jury believed to be focused on the infamous hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in the leadup to the 2016 presidenti­al election.

Michael Cohen went to federal prison for the $130,000 payment to Daniels. He said Trump directed it and paid him back with interest in installmen­ts through his bank account and business. Cohen is cooperatin­g and expects to testify soon before the grand jury.

How the payback was classified could land Trump in hot water. To charge him with a felony for falsely classifyin­g it to the taxman, the DA must find a backup crime — like if the payment was made for political reasons, sources told The News. The legal theory that it would hinge on has no precedent.

Hicks was described in an FBI agent’s affidavit in Cohen’s federal case as being involved in the effort to bury Daniels’ allegation­s. At the time, she was Trump’s campaign spokeswoma­n. She denied knowing anything about it when she testified before the House Judiciary Committee in 2019.

It’s unclear whether prosecutor­s have called Hicks to testify or intend to. Her lawyer Bob Trout declined to comment. DA Alvin Bragg’s spokeswoma­n Danielle Filson had no comment.

When she testified at her former lawyer Michael Avenatti’s unrelated trial last year, Daniels said she wouldn’t describe her 2006 sexual encounter with Trump at a Lake Tahoe golf tournament as romantic.

“I don’t consider getting cornered coming out of a bathroom to be an affair,” she said.

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