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File this under the heading ‘life comes at you fast.’

On Monday she refused to answer questions before the House Intelligence Committee asserting a non existent privilege not to answer-only the WH can assert privilege and they haven’t done. But this has been the pattern of past and present Trump staff where a privilege is asserted that doesn’t exist and Trump gets it both ways-he doesn’t have to explicitly assert privilege and yet enjoy the benefits as his flacks wrongly assert it for themselves.

This is what Hope Hicks-aka Trump’s Rosa Woods-did on Monday: made a wildly overly broad assertion of privilege.

When Stephen K. Bannon, who served as Mr. Trump’s chief strategist until he was forced out in August, similarly refused to testify about his work for the presidential transition team and the White House, Republicans on the committee quickly subpoenaed him. Mr. Bannon continued to refuse to talk about those subjects, and lawmakers are weighing whether to initiate contempt proceedings.

There was no indication that Republicans would subpoena Ms. Hicks.

Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the committee, said Republicans were applying a double standard to Mr. Bannon — who has been exiled from Mr. Trump’s circles after disparaging the Trump children in a book by the author Michael Wolff — and all other witnesses. He urged Republicans who control the committee to subpoena Ms. Hicks.”

“That’s an overly broad claim of privilege that I don’t think any court of law would sustain. And I think the White House knows that,” Mr. Schiff said. “This is not executive privilege, it is executive stonewalling.”

“Members of the committee said that under pressure from lawmakers, Ms. Hicks and her lawyers had consulted the White House during the interview and determined that she could answer limited questions about her work on the transition.”

FN: This was her trick in her more recent interview before the House Judiciary-to refuse to answer any questions about anything that happened during the Administration-refusing to even answer questions about the most basic information. Find link Mike.

“Still, Mr. Schiff said that important questions had been left unaddressed.”

Indeed, of all of Trump’s current and former flacks to make this overly broad assertion of privilege only Bannon was in any way sanctioned which of course is pure politics from the GOP; after he blabbed all that disparaging information about the Trump WH and Russia in Michael Wolff’s  Fire and Fury he’s been persona non grata on the Right wing.

But the real bombshell was when Hicks revealed she sometimes tells ‘white lies’ in her job as Trump’s communication director.

“Hope Hicks, the White House communications director, told House investigators on Tuesday that her work for President Trump, who has a reputation for exaggerations and outright falsehoods, had occasionally required her to tell white lies.”

“But after extended consultation with her lawyers, she insisted that she had not lied about matters material to the investigations into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible links to Trump associates, according to three people familiar with her testimony.”

FN: The recent revelations that she has perjured herself before Congress should be read in light of Hicks’ frank admission

No doubt her lawyers warned her at the legal minefield she just stepped in the minute she admitted to lying for Trump-all that matters is the word ‘lies’; ‘white’ in no way mitigates it in that setting. When you are testifying before Congress talking about how your job sometimes requires you to lie is a huge no no and putting ‘white’ in front of it doesn’t help.

Then the very next day-yesterday-she quits. But this decision had NOTHING to do with her testimony, of her stepping into a legal minefield with ‘white lies’; no it was actually just a total coincidence to hear NY Times reporter Maggie Haberman tell it:

“Ms. Hicks, 29, a former model who joined Mr. Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign without any experience in politics, became known as one of the few aides who understood his personality and style and could challenge the president to change his views.”

“Ms. Hicks had been considering leaving for several months. She told colleagues that she had accomplished what she felt she could with a job that made her one of the most powerful people in Washington, and that there would never be a perfect moment to leave, according to White House aides.”

“Her resignation came a day after she testified for eight hours before the House Intelligence Committee, telling the panel that in her job, she had occasionally been required to tell white lies but had never lied about anything connected to the investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.”

UPDATE

The House Democrats dispute that she told no lies about Russian interference.

“Multiple White House aides said that Ms. Hicks’s departure was unrelated to her appearance before the committee. They said that she had told a small group of people in the days before the session that she had planned to leave her job.”

Sure but did the timing really have nothing to do with such an unfortunate headline?

No doubt that’s how Haberman scores all that access with Fuhrer Trump. Then again do you remember all the times that the Times gave Hillary Clinton the benefit of the doubt and accepted the most charitable interpretation of the latest scandal real or imagined? Neither do I.

More likely is what Abramson intimated: she was already considering bailing-which is smart if she doesn’t want to end up in jail-her friends and family were all advising her NOW is the time to bail.

In December she was interviewed by Mueller and just recently she got swept into her boyfriend Rob Porter’s mess. Not surprising she wanted out. But totally not credible that leaving after ‘white lies’ was any kind of coincidence.

Meanwhile her email chains are a treasure trove in terms of the Russia investigation. She knows where all the bodies are buries-or at least she’s seen all the emails.

Will she also claim like the first Rosa Woods that her foot slipped?

 

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October 28, 2016: a Day That Will Live in Infamy Copyright © by . All Rights Reserved.

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