Former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks will testify next Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee as part of its investigation of the Mueller report’s findings.
As per a deal between Hicks and the committee, the White House Counsel’s Office will have an attorney present during her closed-door testimony, the Washington Post reported.
Hicks will be the first former White House aide to testify about the Russia probe before the committee, which under its chair Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) is conducting a wide-ranging investigation of the Trump administration.
In a statement, Nadler said that the committee would release a transcript of the interview after it occurred.
“Ms. Hicks understands that the Committee will be free to pose questions as it sees fit, including about her time on the Trump Campaign and her time in the White House,” Nadler said. “Should there be a privilege or other objection regarding any question, we will attempt to resolve any disagreement while reserving our right to take any and all measures in response to unfounded privilege assertions.”
The House Judiciary Committee sent a subpoena to Hicks on May 21, after first requesting information from the current Fox Corporation communications strategist in March. A subpoena was sent the same day to Annie Donaldson, who was chief of staff to former White House counsel Don McGahn.
Nadler is investigating various incidents of alleged obstruction that occurred while Hicks was working in the White House, as well as contacts between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and foreign officials.
The subpoena demands records, communications, and a diary that Hicks kept during the campaign.
Hicks cooperated with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, and previously testified before the House Intelligence Committee.
An attorney for Hicks, Robert Trout, did not immediately return a request for comment. In a June 4 letter to Nadler, Trout said that Hicks would only turn over documents from the campaign that were already in her possession. The White House and Presidential Transition Team had both claimed that other documents were under their control, and not Hicks’s, Trout asserted, limiting the amount of information she could turn over.
