Report: Hope Hicks Admits Lying for Trump

But 'white lies' didn't involve Russia, she says
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 28, 2018 3:48 AM CST
Updated Feb 28, 2018 6:11 AM CST
Report: Hope Hicks Admits Lying for Trump
White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, one of President Trump's closest aides and advisers, arrives to meet behind closed doors with the House Intelligence Committee at the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday.   (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

White House Communications Director Hope Hicks didn't answer all of investigators' questions during a House intelligence committee interview Tuesday, insiders say—but she was honest about occasionally being dishonest. Sources tell the New York Times that Hicks admitted that working for President Trump had required her to tell "white lies" from time to time, but she said she hadn't lied about anything to do with the Russian election meddling that the panel is investigating. Hicks, 29, started working for the Trump Organization in 2014, and Politico notes she spent a lot more time at Trump's side at moments of interest to investigators than Steve Bannon, though he has been getting more public attention.

Republican Rep. Tom Rooney says Hicks admitted lying for her boss, but she said he didn't instruct her to lie about Russia, and the committee's jurisdiction isn't "whether or not he asked her to cancel a meeting for him, or something like that," the AP reports. Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the committee, urged the panel to subpoena Hicks the way they did Bannon, the Times reports. He says Hicks shouldn't be allowed to simply refuse to answer questions about the Trump presidency. "That's an overly broad claim of privilege that I don't think any court of law would sustain. And I think the White House knows that," he says. "This is not executive privilege, it is executive stonewalling." (More Hope Hicks stories.)

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