And just to hours from now, former President Donald Trump will be back in a New York City courtroom for the fourth week of his Hush Money criminal trial. One of Trump's most loyal and trusted aides, Hope Hicks, took the stand on Friday, offering a dramatic and emotional day of testimony after bursting into tears in front of her former boss. Cnn Zachary Cohen is here in the studio with me. Zach, walk us through some of the most important moments in her testimony and also how the prosecution might use these as they move forward, kind weave together their story to jurors.

Jessica, we saw the prosecution really nudge closer to the repayment of Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer, which is really at the center of this trial, and also toward the alleged crimes that are outlined in this indictment. That was really the key takeaway from Hope Hicks' testimony, and that includes when prosecutors asked her about the reaction inside the Trump White House in 2018 when these stories about the payment to Stormy Daniels first started to emerge. Hope Hicks recounted a conversation that she had with Donald Trump, where he said that, yes, Michael Cohen paid made Stormy Daniels on his own volition. I didn't know anything about it, and I wasn't involved in that. Hope Hicks says and testified that she didn't believe Donald Trump or Michael Cohen, who said something similar to the New York Times. And she also said that Donald Trump acknowledged that the payment and the fact that this story didn't come out before the 2016 election was really in his best interest. She testified that, I think Mr. Trump's opinion was it was better to be dealing with it now and that it would have been bad to have that story come out before the election.

So really setting the scene for future witnesses who will have potentially firsthand indirect knowledge of these payments and these reimbursements, which she did not have, and allowing them to really craft this narrative that the prosecution has been trying to implant in the minds of the jurors, that these Hush Money payments and this reimbursement of Michael Cohen was part of a broader conspiracy to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.

All right, stay with us. I want to bring in criminal defense attorney David Oscar-Markus into this conversation. David, how damaging do you think that testimony was for the defense. Zack just walked us through some of it.

Yeah, no, it's really devastating, right? Because she's an ally of Trump and is seen as someone who still is loyal to Trump in many ways. So when she's up there and crying, it's really tough on the Trump team. And it's much different than Cohen, who has an ax to grind who will be coming up. So it was a tough Friday, a tough way to end the week. As a criminal defense lawyer, you never want the prosecution to end on a Friday like that, and they did. But the trial is far from over. You would expect the prosecution to be ahead after the first two weeks, right? That's their case. So there's still a lot of trial left.

I did think it was interesting that Hicks testified that the former President didn't want this to be embarrassing or hurtful to his family. He was very concerned about what his wife, Melania, was going to think, underscoring an argument that this was also, at least in part, personal. Do you think that helped the defense?

I I do think it helped the defense. It's part of the way they're going to try to sow some distrust of the prosecution's case. I also thought it was interesting, her testimony about deny, deny, deny, that this was the strategy of Trump, and it always has been the strategy of Trump, right? Denied, denied, denied. But that strategy often does not work for criminal defense lawyers in a trial. You have to be willing to accept and concede some things and fight on the big ones. And it looks like they're denying everything in this trial, which It was a tough burden for the lawyer, Todd Blanch, to take on. Todd's a good lawyer. I know him very well, but it looks like he's having to take on every single fight in this case, adopting that deny, deny, deny strategy.

Yeah, it's hard. It's a high bar. Zack, so far, we've heard from the former publisher for the National Enquire, David Pecker, the former lawyer for Stormy Daniels, and Hope Hicks. One other potential witnesses could we expect to see next. Michael Cohen, of course, as David just mentioned, one of them.

There are several bold-face names that are still out there, including Stormy Daniels, who's really at the center of these hush money allegations. And as you mentioned, Michael Cohen, who it feels like the jury has been primed and been prepped this entire process to prepare themselves for Michael Cohen's eventual testimony, both by the defense attorneys who have been insisting he can't be trusted and that he's a liar, and also by prosecutors by saying, Look, ignore the fact that he's lied in the past. Ignore the fact that he does have some credibility issues. Listen to the facts and the words that are coming out of his mouth, and remember that he does have direct knowledge of what happened in this case. So that's really the pivotal moment in this case is if and when Michael Cohen takes a stand and whether or not the jury believes what he says.

And David, which of those potential witnesses do you think could be the most challenging for the defense?

Well, the defense is salivating for Michael Cohen. That's going to be the big one, of course. And the prosecution is going to be nervous. This is an admitted perjurer, admitted liar, and someone who's had a lot of trouble. I mean, even in this case, he promised everybody he'd stop going on social media. And I mean, what did that last a couple of hours? So The defense needs a win at some point in one of these battles. Cinco de Mayo, the French lost that battle to the Mexican army. The defense needs a win this week because it's looking pretty bleak right now.

Yeah. Our reporters inside the courtroom have been saying that Trump has been closing his eyes, leaning back in his chair for a lot of the testimony. He then posted on Truth Social that he's not sleeping. He's actually listening intently. Regardless, what impact do you think that behavior is having, if any, from the jury?

Well, the jury is watching every single thing that both Trump and his lawyers do, from the minute they walk into the courtroom to the minute they leave. And so they see him falling asleep. They see all of that or closing his eyes, whatever he's doing. I don't know if he's trying to send a message that this is boring testimony or whatever, but I think the jury is not going to like it. It's disrespectful. You got to look, you got to pay attention unless there's some strategy there to show the jury that you just don't think it's but I don't think that's going to work.

All right, Zack Cohen and David Oscar-Markus. Our thanks to both of you.