Hope Hicks, the White House communications director, while being questioned by the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday said that at occasions she was required to tell white lies as a part of her work for President Donald Trump.
The New York Times wrote that Hicks reportedly made the statement during a lengthy testimony before the committee as part of its investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
Additionally, after consulting with her lawyers, Hicks said to the committee that she did not lie about anything that is related to the Russia probe.
During her testimony, she refused to give answer to questions from the panel members about her time in the White House during President Trump’s presidential transition. However, Hicks didn’t invoke executive privilege during her testimony.
California Representative Adam Schiff , the ranking Democrat on the committee, told Times journalists on Tuesday that when Hicks finally received the green light from the White House, she answered “many” questions about the Trump transition period.
Schiff also said that Hicks continued to refuse to answer questions about the administration as well as “key events such as the fabrication of that statement about the Trump Tower meeting.”
Schiff later bashed Hicks for refusing to answer some questions, calling it “executive stonewalling.”
During the Trump campaign and transition periods, Hicks played a crucial role, including the highly scrutinized Trump Tower meeting in June 2016.
According to The Hill, she reportedly helped draft Donald Trump Jr.’s initial misleading statement about his meeting with a Russian lawyer. The president’s eldest son said the meeting centered around Russian adoptions, while it later became known that he attended the meeting after being promised dirt about Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Previously Hicks was questioned by special counsel Robert Mueller and the Senate Intelligence Committee as part of their separate Russia probes.
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