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The
273-page transcript, released by Democrats who lead the U.S.
House Judiciary Committee, chronicles eight hours of closed-door
testimony that Hicks provided the panel on Wednesday as part of
a congressional probe of possible obstruction of justice and
other misconduct by Trump.
Hicks, who was Trump's campaign press secretary, declined to
answer questions about her 14-month tenure at the White House
after the administration asserted that she had immunity from
testifying on the topic. Democrats say the transcript cites 155
instances in which lawyers from the White House and Justice
Department blocked her from answering.
But Hicks did answer questions about the campaign, including
hush payments to two women who claimed to have affairs with
Trump, and about events that have occurred since she departed
the White House in March 2018.
Lawmakers asked the 30-year-old public relations consultant and
former fashion model about comments Trump made in a recent ABC
News interview, in which the president said he saw nothing wrong
with reviewing damaging information about political opponents
from a foreign government.
"I don't think that was a joke, based on what I saw," Hicks told
the committee, adding that she would not accept such information
from a foreign source today and would report any such offer to
federal authorities.
Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's 448-page report on
Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential campaign found
insufficient evidence to establish that the Trump campaign
engaged in a criminal conspiracy with Moscow, despite numerous
contacts between the campaign and Russia.
Representative Doug Collins, the panel's top Republican, said
the transcript contained no new information and called on
Democrats to subpoena Mueller to testify.
Earlier on Thursday, an expert witness told the committee at a
public hearing that Trump's remarks to ABC could violate the
presidential oath of office and provide evidence for any future
impeachment inquiry.
"Receiving foreign assistance has been recognized throughout the
entire history of the country as something that is counter to
and undermines the Constitution," said Carrie Cordero, a
conservative attorney who is a senior fellow at the Center for a
New American Security think tank.
"That is an invitation ... to Russian intelligence and any other
intelligence service that's out there that wants to try to find
a way to influence our democratic processes," she added.
Cordero also pointed to the Trump campaign's use of hacked
emails from Trump's Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and the
Democratic National Committee that were released by Wikileaks as
fertile ground for inquiry.
But Hicks told lawmakers she saw nothing wrong with using the
Wikileaks material against Trump's Democratic rival Hillary
Clinton, saying the Trump campaign was "taking publicly
available information to draw a contrast between the
candidates."
She also disputed the assertion that the Wikileaks emails had
been hacked: "Did those emails describe hacked information?"
Hicks asked one questioner. "I don't believe they described
hacked information."
Asked if the Trump campaign was "happy" to get the Wikileaks
emails damaging to Clinton, Hicks said: "I don't think that's a
fair characterization. I think "relief that we weren't the only
campaign with issues" is more accurate."
(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Chris Reese, Jonathan
Oatis and Richard Chang)
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