The congressional House Intelligence Committee is carrying out investigations alongside the Mueller team related to Russian interference in the 2016 elections. Hope is the latest Trump administration official expected to visit the committee on Tuesday for a closed-door interview. Other White House officials to have visited the committee in January are the White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and former Trump’s campaign manager Corey Lewandowski among others. Hope Hicks is the White House Communication Director and a close confidant to the President.
The information concerning Hope Hicks attendance to the House Intelligence Committee interview was not communicated officially but got through anonymous sources privy to the committee’s schedule and not at liberty to speak publicly on the matter.
Expected Activities at the Committee
Hope Hicks’ participation in the investigative forums has been anticipated by the committee for a long time. Adam Schiff the top Democrat in the committee and California US Representative stated in an ABC interview that other administration officials have fully cooperated with the committee to appraise it with the required information it asked for. However, Schiff voiced his doubt on how much Hicks will be planning to tell the lawmakers as numerous Trump associates have denied answering questions asked by the committee during the closed door meetings.
Not eager to state when the communications director is coming in, Schiff said that the question is when Hicks comes in, will she be in a position to answer all the questions she is asked? Robert Trout, Hicks’ attorney also did not respond when asked to confirm his client’s appearance before the committee and comment on what constraints her testimony may have on the White House. The White House also did not clarify on when Hope Hicks is to attend the House Intelligence Committee. Schiff just said that the communication director is to attend the interview “relatively soon.”
Hope Hicks has already been questioned by Robert Mueller’s probing team conducting investigations into the same matter as well as the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Previous Handling of Trump Administration Interviews
Previous interviews such as that of Steve Bannon did not go well simply because the administrator was instructed by the White House not to answer questions about the transition or his tenure while at the White House. Bannon returned to Capitol Hill this month after Robert Mueller questioned him for two days. During the interviews, Bannon refused to answer some questions as instructed by the White House claiming that he had been instructed to invoke executive privilege on the President’s behalf.
