White House Communications Director Hope Hicks admitted she sometimes tells lies for President Trump during a nine-hour grilling by lawmakers, according to reports.
Hicks refused to answer most questions pertaining to her work in the Trump Administration, according to members of the House Intelligence Committee.
But she did acknowledge during the closed-door meeting on Tuesday that she has occasionally told a white lie for the president.
However she insisted that she has always told the truth on matters related to the Russia probe, the New York Times reported.
Hicks did not answer questions about her time in the White House or her work during the transition after her boss’ election win in November 2016.
She also didn’t say whether any other Trump aides lie, nor did she implicate any other senior staff members.
Hicks, who has been at the center of White House scandal in recent weeks because of her relationship with Rob Porter, was then seen leaving the hearing with the Capitol building in the background.
She refused to answer any questions from waiting reporters – and only spoke to warn a cameraman not to fall over.
White House Communications Director Hope Hicks leaves after answering nine hours of questions by the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill
Hicks reportedly refused to answer any questions during the grilling by lawmakers on Tuesday
She kept her mouth shut as supporters surrounded her, but reacted once by warning a cameraman not to trip over
Hicks then got into a waiting car. It is not known whether she had been instructed to keep her mouth shut by the White House
Rep. Mike Quigley, an Illinois Democrat and House Intelligence Committee member, told CNN earlier on Tuesday that Hicks was not answering questions in the closed-door session.
‘I have less hope that we will get to all the answers,’ Quigley told reporters, purposely deploying the pun. ‘No one is asserting privilege, they are following the orders of the White House not to answer certain questions.’
Quigley suggested that Hicks should be subpoenaed.
Over at the White House, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders wouldn’t say whether Hicks had been instructed to keep her mouth closed.
‘As is always the case I’m not going to comment on any individual’s interactions with the committee,’ Huckabee Sanders told reporters during Tuesday’s press briefing.
‘We are cooperating because, as the president has said repeatedly, there is no collusion and we’re going to continue to cooperate and hopefully they wrap this up soon,’ the press secretary added.
When one reporter pointed out that courts have never ruled that the transition period fell under executive privilege, Huckabee Sanders still wouldn’t talk about any instructions Hicks might have gotten.
‘Just because we asked the question in different ways I’m still not going to comment on any individual’s interactions with the committee,’ she said. ‘I’m also not going to comment on leaks on what’s supposed to be a confidential setting.’
Hicks is photographed arriving Tuesday on Capitol Hill as she’s set to interview with the House Intelligence Committee behind closed doors
Hope Hicks, one of President Trump’s longest-serving political aides, is photographed arriving on Capitol Hill on Tuesday where she’ll speak to members of the House Intelligence Committee
White House Communications Director Hope Hicks (left) gives a look to the camera as she passes through the corridors on Capitol Hill
Sporting a blue belted trench, White House Communications Director Hope Hicks (left) arrives on Capitol Hill where she’s slated to talk to lawmakers who are probing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election
Hope Hicks, the 29-year-old White House communications director, is escorted to where she’ll meet lawmakers who are on the House Intelligence Committee, one of the three Congressional committees looking into Russia matters
Hope Hicks clutches her large black work bag as she’s escorted through the corridors of Capitol Hill Tuesday en route to a meeting with House Intelligence Committee members
A reporter is seen capturing White House Communications Director Hope Hicks’ entrance on Capitol Hill Tuesday
White House Communications Director Hope Hicks is ushered through a Capitol Hill hallway on Tuesday
TALK TO THE HAND: The 29-year-old top Trump aide may refuse to answer lawmakers’ questions. When Steve Bannon sat before the committee, he gave panel members so little that Democrat Adam Schiff said he’d ‘likely’ hold Bannon in contempt
The House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, a Republican from California, is spotted arriving at the Capitol as his panel prepares to meet with White House Communications Director Hope Hicks. Nunes is considered one of President Trump’s top Congressional allies
Quigley, along with Republican Rep. Chris Stewart, told reporters on-the-record that Hicks wasn’t talking.
President Trump ignored a question about Hicks’ performance yelled at him by a reporter during an event Tuesday afternoon in the White House’s Roosevelt Room.
Hicks was originally supposed to appear before lawmakers in January, but that trip to the Capitol was postponed.
Her appearance follows a heated clash between the committee and former chief White House strategist Steve Bannon.
The panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, said it was ‘likely’ Bannon would face contempt of Congress after failing to answer numerous questions in his last appearance.
‘I think it’s likely that he will face a contempt citation,’ Schiff said after Bannon only agreed to answer 25 questions authorized by the White House.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders wouldn’t tell reporters at the briefing Tuesday whether Hope Hicks had been instructed not to tell lawmakers about her time at the White House and the transition
White House lawyers are attempting to declare off-limits questions from the transition, although so far the White House has stopped short of declaring executive privelege.
‘I suspect that Mr. Bannon has been informed that [the White House] will only stonewall so far,’ Schiff said at the Council on Foreign Relations.
‘They will never allow him to be fined or go to jail, but they do wish to draw the process as long as they can,’ Schiff added.
Hicks was aboard Air Force One when the White House drafted a statement in response to a New York Times report that Donald Trump Jr. had met in Trump Tower with a Kremlin-linked lawyer.
Additionally, the New York Times reported that Mark Corallo, a former spokesman for the president’s legal team, planned to tell Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team that Hicks had said that the emails that Donald Trump Jr wrote about the infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russians ‘will never get out.’
Hicks is one of the president’s longest-serving political aides, having joined the campaign at its genesis.
Before that, the former teen model handled public relations for Ivanka Trump within the Trump Organization.
Hicks’ position in the White House came under additional scrutiny amid the Rob Porter scandal, as she had been dating the White House staff secretary at the time that he resigned in disgrace after DailyMail.com revealed allegations of abuse from two of his ex-wives.
She and Porter are no longer dating, according to people with knowledge of the former relationship.