Trump Confidante Hope Hicks To Cooperate With Investigation

Hope Hicks, former White House communications director for the Trump administration and long-time associate of the president, has agreed to cooperate with an investigation into the president’s possible obstruction of justice, according to CNN. The investigation is spearheaded by the House Judiciary Committee.

The committee is exploring a variety of issues that include, but are not limited to:

• Former national security adviser Michael Flynn lying to the FBI
• Trump firing FBI Director James Comey
• Coordination of hush money paid to stifle news of multiple affairs
• Donald Trump Jr.’s misleading statements about a Trump Tower meeting with Russians

Representative Jerry Nadler, who is the committee’s chairman, confirmed through a spokesperson that Hicks, as well as multiple current members of the Trump administration, have agreed to cooperate by providing documents related to their time and work at the White House.

The request from the committee was for documents including “any personal or work diary, journal or other book containing notes, a record or a description of daily events.” The scope of the request pertains to Trump himself, his 2016 presidential campaign, the Trump Organization, and the office of the president in general.

Cooperation from Hicks and other officials acting outside of their official White House capacity could prove especially valuable to Democrats conducting a number of investigations, as the administration itself has so far refused to provide a variety of documents requested.

JUST IN: Former Trump confidante Hope Hicks to cooperate with House Democratic probe into Trump https://t.co/cx5X4O2Xdf pic.twitter.com/ihPHyXfwGw

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) March 20, 2019

The White House thus far has ignored a number of requests, including Nadler’s. This past Monday represented the most recent deadline for a document request that has gone unheeded.

Hicks could also provide further spoken testimony before the committee, supplementing statements she made in response to congressional questioning before the Intelligence Committee previously. At that time, the Democrats had not yet secured the majority at midterms, and she declined to answer some of the questions posed by them behind closed doors in committee.

Hicks’ testimony could prove unique, as she is one of few Trump associates cooperating with the investigation who have been working with the president for a long period of time, beginning well before Trump won the presidency. She was, in fact, one of then-candidate Trump’s first hires and her time with him includes not only the campaign but also the transition to the White House as well as a period of time serving formally in the administration.

In a similar vein, former Trump advisor Steve Bannon has also reportedly provided thousands of pages of documents to the committee.