Thread by @lawofruby

NEW: We just took a brief break because the most composed woman in Trump’s orbit — Hope Hicks — broke down on the stand right as cross examination started. Why would Hicks burst into tears—and why is she struggling to keep it together now? 1/

There are a couple of theories floating around among journalists watching with me. One is that being asked about the Trump family — who plucked her from a private PR firm & turned her into a star — overwhelmed her. Her affection for Trump the man is still evident.

The other is darker. Hicks isn’t out to hurt Trump, but today, she revealed that Trump shared with her that he spoke with Cohen in Feb. 2018, the morning after Cohen told @nytimes that he paid Stormy Daniels without Trump’s knowledge.

@nytimes Trump told Hicks that Cohen had made the payment to protect Trump from false allegations, never told anyone about it, and did it out of the goodness of his own heart.

@nytimes Asked whether that was consistent with the Cohen she knew, she said that it was not. “I did not know Michael to be an especially charitable or selfless person; he is a kind of person who seeks credit,” Hicks testified.

@nytimes In other words, without having to call Trump a liar, Hicks admitted the story Trump told her was a dubious one.

@nytimes Perhaps even worse, during that same conversation, Trump asked her how she thought the Times story was playing and wondered aloud whether it would have been better for the story to have come out during the campaign or when it had, concluding the real-life timing had been better.

@nytimes That’s where the prosecutors’ direct examination of Hicks ended and within a minute or two, her emotions bubbled over.

@nytimes None of us can say why Hope cried or what’s going through her head. But as mysterious as she is, I can’t imagine that as she criss-crossed America at Trump’s side, she ever imagined testifying in a criminal case against a man who saw her as a surrogate daughter.