Out of character

Trump told Hicks that Cohen paid $130K to Daniels 'out of the kindness of his own heart' to silence a false allegation

But Hicks said that version of events would have been "out of character" for Cohen.

ERICA ORDEN

Hope Hicks testified that Trump told her about a conversation he had with Cohen in mid-February 2018. It was the morning after Cohen had told The New York Times that he had paid the $130,000 to Stormy Daniels without Trump’s knowledge, Hicks recalled.

“Mr. Trump was saying he had spoken to Michael and that Michael had paid this woman to protect him from a false allegation. And that Michael felt like it was his job to protect him and that that’s what he was doing. And he did it out of the kindness of his own heart and he never told anybody about it.”

Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo asked if that version of the events was consistent with Hicks’ understanding of Cohen.

“I would say that would be out of character for Michael,” she said. “I didn’t know Michael to be an especially charitable person or selfless person,“ she said, describing him as “the kind of person who seeks credit.”

Hicks said Trump told her “that he thought it was a generous thing to do, and he was appreciative of the loyalty.” She also said Trump asked her if it was better that they were contending with the story after the election.

“Mr. Trump’s opinion was that it was better to be dealing with it now and that it would have been bad to have that put out before the election,” she testified.