White House communications director Hope Hicks told members of the House Intelligence Committee on Tuesday that she is sometimes required to tell white lies as part of her work for President Trump, according to The New York Times.
Hicks reportedly made the statement during a lengthy testimony before the committee as part of its investigation into Russia’s inference in the 2016 election.
Hicks also told the panel, after speaking with her lawyers, that she hasn’t lied about anything related to the Russia probe, sources familiar with her testimony told the Times.
{mosads}As part of her testimony, Hicks declined to answer some questions from the committee about Trump’s presidential transition or her time in the White House. Hicks didn’t invoke executive privilege during her testimony.
Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), the top Democrat on the committee, told reporters Tuesday that once Hicks got the green light from the White House she answered “many” questions about the Trump transition period.
But Hicks continued to refuse to answer questions about the administration as well as “key events such as the fabrication of that statement about the Trump Tower meeting,” according to Schiff.
Schiff slammed Hicks for refusing to answer some questions, calling it “executive stonewalling.”
Hicks played a key role during the campaign and transition periods, including the highly scrutinized Trump Tower meeting in June 2016.
She reportedly helped draft Donald Trump Jr.’s initial misleading statement about his meeting with a Russian lawyer. The president’s eldest son said the meeting centered around Russian adoptions, while it later became known that he attended the meeting after being promised dirt about Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
Hicks has also met with special counsel Robert Mueller as well as the Senate Intelligence Committee as part of their separately-led Russia probes.