Jun 19, 2019

Trump bemoans Democrats putting "wonderful Hope Hicks through Hell"

Zachary Basu

President Trump took to Twitter to complain that his former communications director Hope Hicks is being put "through hell" by Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, despite the fact that Hicks refused to answer any questions about her time in the White House during her closed-door interview on Wednesday.

So sad that the Democrats are putting wonderful Hope Hicks through hell, for 3 years now, after total exoneration by Robert Mueller & the Mueller Report. They were unhappy with result so they want a Do Over. Very unfair & costly to her. Will it ever end? Why aren’t they asking Hillary Clinton why she deleted and acid washed her Emails AFTER getting a subpoena from Congress? Anybody else would be in jail for that, yet the Dems refuse to even bring it up. Rigged House Committee

The big picture: A White House counsel sitting in on the interview has blocked Hicks — the first witness to at least partially comply with a subpoena in the committee's obstruction of justice investigation — from answering any question about her work in the White House or the Trump transition team, according to reporting from Politico and the New York Times. Hicks reportedly refused to answer questions as basic as where her office was located in the White House.

  • "I’m watching obstruction of justice in action," said House Judiciary member Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.). "We’re going to go to court. We’re going to win and just make Hope Hicks come back again and actually answer the questions about her tenure in the White House."
  • A transcript of the interview is expected to be released within 48 hours.

Worth noting: Special counsel Robert Mueller explicitly did not exonerate Trump. In his first and only on-camera public statement since he was appointed, Mueller took the rare step of publicly stating at a press conference: "If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so."

Go deeper: White House launches last-ditch effort to block Hope Hicks testimony

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Coronavirus dashboard

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

  1. Global: Total confirmed cases as of 3 a.m. ET: 665,164 — Total deaths: 30,852 — Total recoveries: 140,225.
  2. U.S.: Leads the world in cases. Total confirmed cases as of 3 a.m. ET: 124,665 — Total deaths: 2,191 — Total recoveries: 1,095.
  3. Federal government latest: President Trump announces new travel advisories for New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, but rules out quarantine enforcement. Per the CDC, residents of those states must now "refrain from non-essential domestic travel for 14 days," with the exception of critical infrastructure industry workers.
  4. State updates: Alaska is latest state to issue a stay-at-home order — New York is trying to nearly triple its hospital capacity in less than a month and has moved its presidential primary to June 23. Some Midwestern swing voters who backed Trump's handling of the virus less than two weeks ago are balking at his call for the U.S. to be "opened up" by Easter.
  5. World updates: In Spain, over 1,400 people were confirmed dead between Thursday to Saturday.
  6. 🚀 Space updates: OneWeb filed for bankruptcy amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.
  7. Hollywood: Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson have returned to U.S. after being treated for coronavirus.
  8. What should I do? Answers about the virus from Axios experts — What to know about social distancing — Q&A: Minimizing your coronavirus risk
  9. Other resources: CDC on how to avoid the virus, what to do if you get it.

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