PER RESIGNING MS. HICKS: “WORKING FOR TRUMP REQUIRED ME TO TELL WHITE LIES”

… Resigning White House Communications Director, Hope Hicks & her attorney

 

Hicks will probably be asked to re-interview with special counselor, Robert Mueller

 

I have tried to stay away from the intrigue of the Trump family members being key advisors to the US president.

 

But I was surprised that when the president’s daughter, Ivanka, was recently being interviewed and was asked if she believed the almost 2 dozen women that have accused her father of sexual harassment, she responded that it was an inappropriate question for a president’s daughter.

 

Well, Ivanka, if you were living in the White House as a family member, such as did Chelsea Clinton, yes that would be an inappropriate question.

 

But when you and your husband are senior advisors to the President of the United States, it is not an inappropriate question.

 

So now we get to another “almost a Trump family member”, Hope Hicks, who is resigning as the White House Communications Director.  (Yes, another member of the Trump team is resigning.  If this keeps up, only Trump family members will be operating in the White House.)

 

Hicks is a former model, then fashion PR executive that had worked for Ivanka Trump’s business before she became Donald Trump’s personal assistant some years ago.

 

Ms. Hick, who has already spent hours under oath in discussions with Robert Mueller, the special investigation counselor, Hicks may now be asked to re-interview with Mueller because of what she told the House Investigation Committee.

 

In that House interview, Hicks told the investigators that “My working for President Trump, who has a reputation for exaggerations and outright falsehoods, had occasionally required me to tell some ‘white lies’.”

 

Sorry Ms. Hicks, no one is “required” to tell lies, white or not.

 

But after her extended interview interruption consultation with her lawyers, she insisted that she had not told any ‘white lies’ about any matters material to the investigations into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, and any possible links to Trump associates.

 

The word has it that Ms. Hicks could be in big trouble as she apparently did not give that same statement to the Mueller investigators.  If there were some “white-lies” given while under oath, that would be a serious felony.  In the House interview, Ms. Hicks declined to answer similar questions about other figures from the Trump campaign or the White House.

 

As one press reporter put it, “Members of the Trump administration haven’t always followed a traditional path. Hope Hicks fits right in, as she’s a communications director who hardly communicated publicly.”

Hicks also repeatedly declined to answer any questions about the presidential transition or her time in the White House, telling investigators that she had been asked by the White House to discuss only her time on the campaign. They added that she did not formally invoke any executive privilege

 

The lawyers for Ms. Hicks have also declined any comment.

 

The House committee, which has been investigating Russia’s meddling for nearly a year, has increasingly found itself butting up against the White House over similar claims by witnesses.

 

“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,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) said. “This is not executive privilege, it is executive stonewalling.”

 

Members of the House committee said that under pressure from lawmakers, Ms. Hicks and her lawyers had consulted the White House during the interview and they determined that she could answer limited questions about her work on the transition.  Still, Rep. Schiff said that important questions had been left totally unaddressed.

 

Hicks is an important fixture of Donald Trump’s inner circle, both throughout the campaign and in the White House. Ms. Hicks is also viewed as a valuable witness by investigators. She was involved in the firing of James B. Comey as FBI Director.  She was also involved in the drafting of a statement in July in response to questions about the 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Russians and top Trump campaign officials. The statement and its drafting have attracted the interest of special counsel Mueller, which could fall under a justice obstruction.  As expected, Ms. Hicks refused to answer questions about both.

 

The investigators working for Mr. Mueller interviewed Ms. Hicks over two days last December.  But due to her latest “white lie” statement, she may be required to speak with the Mueller team one more time.  Hicks has also testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee.

 

Democrats and Republicans have spent the better part a month bitterly wrangling over a Republican memo accusing the FBI and the Justice Department of abusing their powers to spy on a former Trump campaign aide, Carter Page.

The Trump White House has repeatedly and wrongly claimed that the special Mueller investigation shows no collusion and that the investigation is “close to concluding”.

 

However, some of us feel the digging into the investigation “has only just begun”.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2018