One of the president’s closest aides is the latest to be told to come testify before Congress
The House Judiciary Committee said on Tuesday it had issued subpoenas for Hope Hicks and Annie Donaldson for testimony and documents related to the committee’s ongoing investigation into obstruction of justice and public corruption by President Trump, his associates, and other members of the administration.
The committee had previously sent document requests to Hicks, a former communications director for Trump and Donaldson, former chief of staff of White House counsel Don McGahn, in March as part of its sweeping investigation. As of late March, Hicks had planned to turn over documents as part of that investigation.
The subpoenas set a deadline for both former Trumpworld figures to submit documents to the committee by June 4. The date for Hicks testimony has been set for June 19. Donaldson’s is set for June 24.
The subpoenas represent yet another escalation of the tensions between House Democrats and the White House. The president has insisted he will resist all matters of oversight following the issuance of the Special Counsel report into Russia electoral interference. And, so far, his top current and former aides have resisted Democratic efforts to compel testimony. Earlier on Tuesday, former White House counsel Don McGahn declined to appear before the House Judiciary Committee after having received a subpoena of his own.
But Hicks occupies a different place in Trump’s solar system than the rest. The president has shown immense affection for his former aide, who served as a top press adviser for this 2016 campaign and during the first year-plus of his administration before leaving to take a job at Fox, the company spun off from Twenty-First Century Fox’s merger with Walt Disney Company. And unlike her contemporaries, she left the White House on strong terms, with Trump even posing for a Rose Garden goodbye photo op with her.
Hicks referred The Daily Beast on Tuesday afternoon to her lawyer, Robert Trout, who then replied that he was “not commenting” on the news.
