Hope Hicks, President Donald Trump’s communications director, is under increased scrutiny amid reports that she said Donald Trump Jr.’s emails, which she allegedly helped craft, would “never get out.”
The issue stems from a 2016 meeting between Trump Jr., a Russian lawyer named Natalia Veselnitskaya, and several other Russians, who reportedly promised “dirt” on Hilary Clinton, including “some official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia,” ABC News writes.
After news of the meeting emerged, Donald Trump Jr. issued a statement in July 2017, claiming that the meeting was primarily meant to discuss issues of Russian adoptions. It was written with the help of both the president and Hicks while they were aboard Air Force One flying home from the G-20 summit in China.
The spokesman for Trump’s legal team, Mark Corallo, spoke with Hicks that same month due to concerns that the statement may be misleading. The conversation sparked the interest of special counsel Robert Mueller, who asked to speak to Corallo, a source told ABC News.
Another source said Corallo spoke with Hicks again on July 9 about the Trump Jr. emails and the Trump Tower meeting, and the president listened to the conversation. The source also said that when Corallo expressed his concerns, Hicks said, “Only a few people have them. They will never get out,” referring to the emails.
According to the source, Corallo responded, “This is Washington. Everything gets out.”
In his book “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House”, author Michael Wolff wrote that “Corallo, seeing no good outcome…. believed the meeting on Air Force One represented a likely obstruction of justice.”
Robert Trout, a lawyer representing Hicks denied the accounts, saying that “She never said that. And the idea that Hope Hicks ever suggested that emails or other documents would be concealed or destroyed is completely false.”
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