Former Trump White House Communications Director Hope Hicks was prevented from answering questions from the House Judiciary Committee 155 times, by a White House attorney who was present in the room for her closed door testimony Wednesday.
Chairman Jerry Nadler has just released the official transcript of the interview. It spans 273 pages.
“For example,” Talking Points Memo reports, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) Nadler “asked Hicks whether Corey Lewandowski was hired as an official in the White House.”
“White House attorney Michael Purpura immediately objected,” TPM notes, despite the question being a matter of public record, as Nadler said.
“Ms. Hicks may not be compelled to speak about events that occurred during her service as a senior adviser to the President.”
Nadler also points to these specific instances where Hicks was blocked from answering:
- President Trump’s directive to Corey Lewandowski to deliver a message directing Attorney General Sessions to “unrecuse” from the Russia investigation and limit the Special Counsel investigation (p28-30), a request that Ms. Hicks admitted she found “odd” (p34). According to the Mueller Report, Ms. Hicks was directly involved in the incident when Mr. Lewandowski asked her to type up the President’s obstructive words.
- President Trump’s effort to have White House Counsel Don McGahn remove the Special Counsel (p116).
- The resignation of former National Security Advisory Michael Flynn (p201).
- The recusal of Attorney General Sessions from the Russia investigation (p203).
- The President’s firing of FBI Director James Comey (p203).
- The President’s creation of a false statement in response to press coverage of the June 9, 2016 Trump Tower meeting (p205-206).
The full transcript can be viewed via Chairman Nadler’s House website, or via the direct link here.
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