Hope Hicks: Trump campaign felt ‘relief’ after WikiLeaks released damaging info about Hillary Clinton

Former White House communications director Hope Hicks told the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday that she and members of the Trump campaign were relieved to see Wikileaks release damaging information stolen from Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

During her closed-door interview with the committee, Hicks was asked by Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) whether the campaign “was happy” to “receive information that was damaging to Hillary Clinton.”

{mosads}“I think that ‘happy’ is not – I don’t think that’s a fair characterization. I think ‘relief that we weren’t the only campaign with issues’ is more accurate,” Hicks said, according to a 273-page transcript of her interview.

Hicks also referenced the unverified dossier of claims about President Trump’s ties to Russia authored by former British intelligence agent Christopher Steele during her testimony when asked if she would accept compromising information on an opponent during an election from a foreign source.

“I’m asking you this based on your experience and the expertise you’ve developed, would you take foreign oppo information from a foreign government, if that were offered when working on a political campaign?” Norm Eisen, a committee lawyer, asked Hicks.

“You know, knowing how much chaos has been sowed as a result of something like the Steele dossier, no, I would not,” Hicks responded.

Hicks’ testimony was met with derision from Democrats on Thursday after the White House’s order for her to not answer questions related to the Trump presidency or White House transition team resulted in many questions going unanswered.

“As a matter of longstanding executive branch precedent in the Department of Justice practice and advice, as a former senior adviser to the President, Ms. Hicks may not be compelled to speak about events that occurred during her service as a senior adviser to the President. That question touched upon that area,” a White House deputy counsel informed lawmakers, an explanation which committee chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) called “absolute nonsense.”