The White House ordered former communications director Hope Hicks not to provide documents to the House Judiciary Committee in a declaration of executive privilege.
The order from White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney comes the day of a committee deadline for documents and also applies to former White House official Annie Donaldson, who worked as chief of staff to former White House counsel Don McGahn, according to reports.
A White House spokesman did not immediately confirm the report. Hicks served as a Trump spokeswoman during the 2016 campaign and could still be subpoenaed for records from that time.
In May, the White House asserted executive privilege — which protects the president’s right to confidential advice — to prevent McGahn from providing documents to the committee, which is led by Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York.
The top Republican on the Judiciary Committee said it’s inaccurate to claim the White House directed Hicks or Donaldson to defy a subpoena. The two women are unable to provide the documents requested by Nadler because they are in the possession of the White House and Nadler did not send the subpoenas there, but rather to Hicks and Donaldson.
“It’s clear the White House did not direct Ms. Hicks to ignore a subpoena because she produced responsive documents that were not under control of the White House, Presidential Transition Team, or campaign. While the House Intelligence Committee has received some documents related to Ms. Hicks by asking the sources — for example, the Trump campaign — the Judiciary Committee has made no similarly logical requests of the campaign or White House,” said a spokeswoman for Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga. “As a result, its success in retrieving documents has been minimal, even though the administration and other entities have routinely produced documents to other committees.”
The committee is the would-be incubator for articles of impeachment against President Trump, and the White House has broadly expressed interest in heading off further discussion of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Trump also asserted executive privilege over redacted portions of the roughly 450-page document to block their acquisition by Congress.
Nadler, a longtime Trump adversary, is seeking additional information on Trump attempting to obstruct Mueller’s work, including allegedly ordering McGahn to fire Mueller.
[Read more: 10 times Trump might have obstructed justice]
