New York | Her voice low, her posture tense, the woman who spent years steering Donald Trump through strife and scandal stepped to the witness stand Friday carrying a different burden. She was there under the fluorescent lights of a dreary Manhattan courtroom, seated 4.5 metres from the former president she once fiercely defended, to testify at his criminal trial.

“I’m really nervous,” Hope Hicks, the onetime Trump spokesperson, messaging maestro and all-around adviser, acknowledged to the prosecutor questioning her, declaring what was already obvious to the riveted courtroom.