Ex-Trump aide to speak with panel

WASHINGTON — Hope Hicks, the former White House communications director, has agreed to a private interview with the House Judiciary Committee, the panel announced Wednesday.

The panel subpoenaed Hicks last month as part of its investigation into special counsel Robert Mueller’s report and obstruction of justice. The interview will be held Wednesday and a transcript will be released.

The appearance is a breakthrough for the panel, which has been holding hearings with experts as President Donald Trump has criticized congressional investigations. Hicks, a longtime aide to Trump, is mentioned throughout Mueller’s report.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said the interview will include questions about her time on Trump’s presidential campaign and in the White House.

“It is important to hear from Ms. Hicks, who was a key witness for the special counsel,” Nadler said. “Ms. Hicks understands that the committee will be free to pose questions as it sees fit.”

Democrats hope to have additional witnesses after Hicks. They are expected to go to court soon to enforce a subpoena against former White House Counsel Donald McGahn, who did not show up for his scheduled hearing last month.

Separately, the House Intelligence Committee chairman threatened Wednesday to subpoena FBI Director Christopher Wray for information related to the bureau’s counterintelligence investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said he has unsuccessfully sought more information about that investigation and any links to Trump’s winning campaign, including whether that probe is still active. The investigation was first disclosed by then-FBI Director James Comey at a committee hearing in March 2017, and Schiff said he has received few answers about it since Comey was fired by Trump two months later.

While Mueller did examine Russian interference and possible ties to the Trump campaign, Schiff wants to know whether the FBI is still conducting any related counterintelligence investigations. Such inquiries can take years and extend far beyond a criminal investigation.

“We are determined to get answers, and we are running out of patience,” Schiff said after a hearing on the counterintelligence implications of Mueller’s report. “If necessary, we’ll subpoena the director and require him to come in and provide those answers under oath.”

At the hearing, former FBI officials told lawmakers that Russian meddling bore some of the textbook tricks of the trade of Kremlin spycraft, including the volume and breadth of contacts with Trump associates.

The two witnesses, Robert Anderson and Stephanie Douglas, highlighted aspects of the Mueller report they said showed Russian efforts to screen and test Trump campaign associates, to establish back channels of communications and to spread their contacts around in hopes of maximizing their chances of getting what they wanted.

“It is an absolute classic tradecraft of Russia and Russian intelligence services. They’ll never have one point of failure,” said Anderson, a former FBI executive assistant director who used to supervise counterintelligence investigations. “If they’re looking to try to obtain or pass information or potentially even influence information, they’ll make sure that they have numerous aspects or points to where they can try to get that done.”

Mueller did not find a criminal conspiracy between the campaign and Russia, but he did detail a series of interactions and outreach that have alarmed Democrats and accelerated calls from some in the party for impeachment proceedings and renewed investigations.

Among the interactions was a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower during which the president’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., expected to receive dirt on his father’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, discussed President Barack Obama’s sanctions against Russia with the then-Russian ambassador in the weeks leading up to the president’s inauguration in January 2017.

“It immediately put the existing administration in a horribly conflicting position, and they didn’t know about the backchannel in advance of the inauguration,” said Douglas, a former FBI executive assistant director. “It also probably assured the Russians that they were going to get a more favorable treatment” by the incoming Trump administration.

“It is important to hear from Ms. Hicks, who was a key witness for the special counsel. Ms. Hicks understands that the committee will be free to pose questions as it sees fit.” — House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler

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