Escalating a standoff...

Hope Hicks draws line on Russia testimony

The Trump confidant's appearance may escalate tensions between the House Intelligence Committee and the West Wing over interview ground rules.

By KYLE CHENEY

White House communications director Hope Hicks declined to answer many questions during an appearance on Tuesday before the House Intelligence Committee, escalating a standoff over witness ground rules between the West Wing and House members investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Hicks said she was acting on instructions from the White House when she refused to answer questions covering her time on the post-election transition and in the West Wing, committee members said. It is unclear whether President Donald Trump officially authorized her to invoke executive privilege on his behalf, a step some lawmakers believe he must take to make such a claim valid.

By late afternoon, Hicks — one of Trump’s closest confidants — had spent more than nine hours in a secure committee meeting room. She spent much of that time answering questions about her time on the Trump campaign, when investigators believe Russians made multiple efforts to infiltrate Trump's circle. Toward the end of the day, Hicks abandoned her refusal to discuss the presidential transition — but continued to decline queries about her White House tenure.

Hicks changed her tack after members noted she had discussed the transition during a prior interview with the Senate Intelligence Committee, according to Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.).

The issue of interview ground rules has also bedeviled the panel’s recent meetings with former Trump political strategist Steve Bannon, whom even Republican committee members have discussed holding in contempt for his refusal to answer many of their questions — apparently at the direction of White House lawyers. The top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, complained after a Feb. 15 meeting with Bannon that the former Trump aide would respond only to queries that had been “literally scripted for him by the White House."

White House officials rejected that charge, saying they are properly shielding privileged conversations between the president and his senior aides. But lawmakers of both parties on the panel have expressed growing frustration about that position.

The House Intelligence Committee subpoenaed Bannon on the spot during an appearance in January. But by early afternoon no such action had been taken to compel Hick’s fuller testimony. Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) made clear the intelligence panel views Hicks differently than Bannon because she still serves in the administration.

Rooney declined to say whether Hicks coordinated her responses with the White House during the interview. He said he was satisfied with her responses and that no subpoena threat had been issued to extract more testimony.

Hicks' appearance marks the latest drama for a panel riven by partisan anger since the release of a classified Republican memo accusing the FBI of inappropriately spying on a former Trump campaign adviser in 2016. Trump declassified the GOP document on Feb. 2 but blocked the immediate release of a Democratic rebuttal, which emerged on Saturday. The furor has threatened to derail the committee’s probe into Russian election meddling, which has proven far more acrimonious than a parallel one being conducted by the Senate Intelligence Committee.

King said Republicans spent time during the hearing correcting “unfair questions” posed by Democrats. He and Rooney declined to elaborate on what questions might have been at issue.

Though Bannon has drawn more public attention, Hicks has spent far more time at Trump’s side: Bannon joined Trump’s campaign only in the summer of 2016 and left the White House roughly a year later. Hicks has also been present for key moments of interest to Russia investigators, including an Air Force One flight last July on which Trump and his advisers and family members crafted a misleading statement about a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a Kremlin-connected Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton.

Both Republicans and Democrats on the panel have previously erupted at Bannon for citing executive privilege as a shield against questions about his time on the Trump transition team, given that Trump had not yet taken office and assumed the presidential duties that privilege is widely considered to cover.

It’s also unclear whether the House will follow through with threats to hold Bannon in contempt. Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), who’s leading the intelligence committee’s Russia probe, has said the question would require guidance from House leaders — but Conaway said he has not yet spoken to House Speaker Paul Ryan about the prospect of a contempt citation. Ryan’s office has so far declined to weigh in on the prospect.

The House’s treatment of Bannon may not be a guide for what’s to come for Hicks. Bannon had a falling out with Trump in January over comments he gave to author Michael Wolff for the book “Fire and Fury,” in which he criticized members of the Trump family and suggested their interactions with Russians may have been nefarious. Hicks remains a trusted insider and power center of Trump’s team.

Hicks has already met with special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the Justice Department’s Russia investigation.