Hope Hicks, White House communications director, informed members of the House Intelligence Committee that she sometimes tell white lies for President Trump, according to multiple reports Tuesday.
After speaking with her lawyers, Hicks told the committee that the lies did not concern information related to the investigations concerning Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, sources familiar with the testimony told the New York Times. CNN later confirmed the report.
Hicks did not initially respond to several questions from the panel about Trump’s presidential transition or her service at the White House, but did not invoke executive privilege during her interview.
However, according to the top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., Hicks did answer “many” questions about the Trump transition period after receiving approval from the White House, though not about her time in the White House.
She did not answer questions about the administration and “key events such as the fabrication of that statement about the Trump Tower meeting,” Schiff said.
Schiff called Hick’s silence on certain questions not about the 2016 campaign “executive stonewalling” and told reporters after the hearing that he called on the committee majority to subpoena Hicks, similar to what it did to former Trump campaign chairman and White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. Schiff said that request was denied.
Hicks was an influential figure during the 2016 election and the transition periods and allegedly assisted drafting Donald Trump Jr.’s misleading statement concerning his meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower in June 2016. His first explanation said the meeting was focused on Russian adoptions.
It was later revealed Trump Jr. agreed to the meeting on the pretense that he would receive damaging information about Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Hicks has already met with special counsel Robert Mueller and the Senate Intelligence Committee as part of their investigations to determine whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin during the 2016 election.
