Hicks resigns from White House.
WASHINGTON >> Hope Hicks, the White House communications director and one of President Donald Trump’s longest-serving and closest advisers, abruptly announced Wednesday that she plans to resign — sending a jolt through a West Wing besieged by internal tumult and the intensifying Russia investigation.
Hicks, 29, began working for Trump before he announced his candidacy and has been a trusted confidante for three years, shaping his image, managing his moods and counseling him on nearly all matters, from the substantive to the trivial.
A political neophyte who was fiercely loyal to her boss, Hicks exerted extraordinary influence in Washington and was treated by the president almost as a surrogate daughter. She had been widely expected to remain working for Trump until the end of his presidency, and possibly beyond.
But her special relationship with the president has ensnared Hicks in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and of possible obstruction of justice by the president. She has come under scrutiny for, among other things, her role aboard Air Force One last year helping Trump draft a misleading statement about son Donald Trump Jr.’s 2016 meeting with Russians.
Hicks has been interviewed by Mueller’s team, and on Tuesday testified for nine hours before the House Intelligence Committee as part of its separate Russia investigation, where she admitted to telling what one person familiar with her testimony characterized as white lies.
Hicks said she sometimes stretched the truth on minor matters at Trump’s direction but that she had never lied about anything relevant to the investigation, according to a person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because her testimony was confidential.
White House officials said Hicks’ decision to leave the administration was in the works for several weeks and had nothing to do with the Russia probe or her appearance on Capitol Hill this week. They said Hicks was burned out by three years working in the whirlwind of the Trump orbit, and she told the president she was ready to pursue opportunities in the private sector.
“There are no words to adequately express my gratitude to President Trump,” Hicks said in a statement. “I wish the President and his administration the very best as he continues to lead our country.”
Trump praised Hicks as ”smart and thoughtful as they come.”