‘Keep Praying!!’ Trump Aide Hope Hicks Texted Michael Cohen About Keeping Stormy Daniels Story Out of Media

Former Trump campaign aide Hope Hicks was deeply involved in the effort to keep the story of the then-candidate’s hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels out of the public eye just before the 2016 election.

That revelation comes from newly released search warrant documents from the federal investigation into Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen. The documents had been unsealed in March with several sections redacted. The judge in the case determined that those sections could be unredacted after federal prosecutors told him they have finished their investigation into the Trump Organization.

Cohen is currently serving three years in federal prison after pleading guilty to nine charges, including two campaign finance violations related to his arranging the payments to Daniels to keep her from going public about an affair the adult-film actress had with Trump years earlier.

The documents released on Thursday show several calls, emails and text messages Cohen had exchanged with Hicks, along with Daniels’ then-lawyer and executives for American Media, publisher of the National Enquirer, which had been involved in buying and burying several such stories from women with whom Trump alleged had multiple affairs.

Despite AMI’s efforts, however, The Wall Street Journal began reporting on the Daniels story just days before the election. At that point, Cohen was in close contact with Hicks as he kept her apprised of the public reaction. He also told Hicks he had a statement from Daniels denying the story if it was needed. But the Journal story was getting so little traction with the wider press that he didn’t think it would be necessary.

“So far I only see 6 stories,” Cohen texted Hicks at one point.

“Keepy praying!! It’s working!” Hicks wrote back, apparently happy that the hush money Cohen had paid Daniels and other alleged Trump paramours seemed to be keeping corroborators from coming forward.

Read the Cohen warrant documents here.