Perhaps the most dramatic moment so far in Donald Trump's hush money trial in New York came on Friday when Hope Hicks, his former spokeswoman, took the stand. Hicks, once a trusted advisor, was described as nervous. She also cried on the stand. She described what it was like to try and keep a lid on reporting involving the President's sex life, just as the Access Hollywood tape became public in October 2016. You'll remember, just right before the election. Joining me now, senior contributor and former White House Council for President Nixon, John Dean. John, great to have you here. I want to ask you about Friday's testimony, as we saw Hope Hicks, who for so long was so close to President Trump in his orbit. How difficult do you think it was for her to take the stand in front of her former boss? She kept I think she was there under subpoena, and she's also one of the few aides that hasn't tried to get a cable deal or a book deal or anything like that.

I suspect it was very difficult for She appears to be a lovely young lady. I have three granddaughters. I'm very sensitive to young ladies her age. I watched her. I got second-hand report, obviously, but I'm not surprised it was a very emotional experience. The Trump family was very close to her. She was given wonderful opportunity at a very early age and did well in the posts. It's not surprising she was nervous because she was going to the truth, and the truth wasn't always what Mr. Trump wanted to hear, and he was just a few feet away from her.

Right. And she gave a lot of background on how the Trump campaign was feeling after the Access Hollywood tape came out that obviously showed his lewd comments about women. Do you think that the prosecution did a good job of using that testimony to paint a picture of Trump being politically motivated in silencing Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal?

I think they did. I think it was very vivid. She was deep in the campaign, right at the top, and could see it all unfold. And her descriptions of the events were very compelling and certainly did show the tremendous focus the campaign had on these issues. While some of her testimony somewhat softened it, it's clear that everything was in the context of the campaign, and these events were very related to the campaign. Yeah.

And what about Michael Cohen in all of this? Because he potentially could... He plays a key role in this whole case. And they've said the prosecution has tried to soften the road for him a little bit by telling the jury that not everybody has a perfectly clean record that they're going to be hearing from. But what about the testimony from Hope Hicks and her characterization of Michael Cohen? What impact do you think that had on the jury in terms of how they're going to view him?

I don't think her characterizations will be as important as her co-operation, where she provided, as other witnesses already have, a structure into which he can fill a lot of the first-hand information from Pecker, who was the initial witness, the head of the National Enquiry organization, right down to Hope Hicks. The prosecution has done a really solid job of cooperating what is going to be Michael Cohn's testimony. He can take it then a little bit further and fill in a few more gaps. But I've been following the transcript. It takes a couple of days for it to come out. It's not immediate. The exhibits, however, are coming out, and it's striking how many exhibits there are that just tell this story. So the jury really has solid paper to look and unfold this whole tale.

Right, and then see it in front of.