Hope Hicks stands as a curious figure in the White House. At age 29, she’s somehow advanced to the level of communications director, yet she’s not exactly the communicative type in the public eye. Every so often, she issues a denial about the latest Trump antic, but it’s been known for months that Robert Mueller is circling her during the Russia probe. She was reportedly cautioned by the FBI about Russian operatives sending her emails, and Donald Trump Jr. claimed that he spoke with Hicks, not his father, about the Trump Tower meeting. Now, a Mueller witness will reportedly draw her even deeper into the investigation about possible campaign collusion with Russia.
The New York Times reports that former Trump legal spokesman Mark Corallo will soon sit for an interview with Mueller’s prosecution team. Three sources told the publication that he intends to express concern that Hicks edged toward obstruction of justice during a conference call, in which she allegedly vowed to the president that Don Jr.’s emails about the Trump Tower meeting (which. he ended up releasing himself) would never see the light of day:
Mr. Corallo is planning to tell Mr. Mueller about a previously undisclosed conference call with Mr. Trump and Hope Hicks, the White House communications director, according to the three people. Mr. Corallo planned to tell investigators that Ms. Hicks said during the call that emails written by Donald Trump Jr. before the Trump Tower meeting — in which the younger Mr. Trump said he was eager to receive political dirt about Mrs. Clinton from the Russians — “will never get out.” That left Mr. Corallo with concerns that Ms. Hicks could be contemplating obstructing justice, the people said.
Hicks, who officially lawyered up a few months ago, has already denied Corallo’s accusations through attorney Robert P. Trout, who told the NY Times, “[T]he idea that Hope Hicks ever suggested that emails or other documents would be concealed or destroyed is completely false.”
In other Hicks news, Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury relayed that staffers think of her as the “real daughter” of the president (while Ivanka is considered his “real wife”). Hicks began her career as a model before working for Ivanka in the Trump Organization, and Ivanka recommended her for the role of Trump campaign press secretary. And now she’s becoming a focus of the Justice Department’s Russia investigation, which is a heck of an odd place to find oneself at age 29.
(Via New York Times)