White House Directs Hope Hicks Not to Comply with House Subpoena
The White House has instructed former aide Hope Hicks not to comply with a subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee.
Hicks, now the chief of communications at Fox, was asked to provide documents related to her time on the Trump campaign and her service in the White House. The committee also requested such documents from Annie Donaldson, the former chief of staff to White House counsel Don McGahn. Hicks did agree to turn over some documents from the campaign, said Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler.
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“As part of President Trump’s continued obstruction of Congress, the White House has instructed both Hope Hicks and Annie Donaldson not to turn over records in response to subpoenas issued by our Committee last month,” Nadler said in a statement. “I note that Ms. Hicks has agreed to turn over some documents to the Committee related to her time working for the Trump Campaign, and I thank her for that show of good faith.”
The Judiciary Committee asked for the documents on March 4, and the committee issued a subpoena on May 21, with an order to turn over the material by Tuesday. In his statement, Nadler said the requested material is not subject to executive privilege.
“Federal law makes clear that the documents we requested — documents that left the White House months ago — are no longer covered by executive privilege, if they ever were,” he said. “The President has no lawful basis for preventing these witnesses from complying with our request. We will continue to seek reasonable accommodation on these and all our discovery requests and intend to press these issues when we obtain the testimony of both Ms. Hicks and Ms. Donaldson.”
The committee is holding a series of hearings on the report of Special Counsel Robert Mueller. John Dean, the former White House counsel who testified against Richard Nixon during Watergate, is set to appear at a hearing on June 10.
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