White House Communications Director Hope Hicks will resign in the coming weeks, the New York Times’ first reported Wednesday.
The announcement comes one day after Hicks testified before the House Intelligence Committee for its investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
She reportedly told the committee she sometimes tells “white lies” in her official capacity.
But Hicks’ falsehoods, as CNN commentator and former Ted Cruz aide Amanda Carpenter pointed out on air, weren’t always small, like when a top Russian diplomat claimed days after Trump’s electoral victory that Russian officials had been in touch with Trump campaign officials.
“It never happened,” Hicks told the Associated Press of the claim. “There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign.”
She broke into headlines again on Jan. 31 of this year, when the New York Times reported that she’d told Donald Trump Jr. in July 2017 that his emails with British publicist Rob Goldstone “will never get out.” Goldstone had set up a Trump Tower meeting during the campaign between a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton and an enthusiastic Trump Jr.
The younger Trump eventually released the emails himself a few days after Hicks’ assurance, beating the New York Times to the punch. Hicks’ lawyer told the Times of the quoted remark that she “never said that. And the idea that Hope Hicks ever suggested that emails or other documents would be concealed or destroyed is completely false.”
Hicks is the fourth person to serve as communications director in the Trump administration, in addition to Sean Spicer, Mike Dubke and Anthony Scaramucci. She was named to the position in September of last year, after serving in an interim capacity the previous month.
“There are no words to adequately express my gratitude to President Trump,” she said in a statement Wednesday. “I wish the President and his administration the very best as he continues to lead our country.”
“Hope is outstanding and has done great work for the last three years,” President Donald Trump said in a statement. “She is as smart and thoughtful as they come, a truly great person. I will miss having her by my side but when she approached me about pursuing other opportunities, I totally understood. I am sure we will work together again in the future.”
Hicks was one of Trump’s closest advisers in the White House and on the campaign trail before that. She began working for Ivanka Trump as an employee of the Trump Organization in 2014, after having met and worked with her while working for a PR firm.
This post has been updated.
