Andrew Harrer-Pool/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — (WASHINGTON) — White House communications director Hope Hicks appeared before the House Intelligence Committee Tuesday for a closed-door interview related to Russian interference in the 2016 election, but a Democrat and a Republican said she was refusing to answer questions about the presidential transition and the Trump White House.
Rep. Denny Heck, a Washington Democrat, told reporters the committee was getting “Bannon’ed” by Hicks – a reference to former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who refused to answer similar questions when he appeared before the committee earlier this month.
Rep. Peter King, a New York Republican, said Hicks has answered questions about the presidential campaign but was instructed by the White House not to answer questions regarding the transition or her time in the White House.
The committee has long anticipated testimony from Hicks, one of the president’s closest confidantes, but it was unclear beforehand how much she would tell lawmakers, after Bannon and numerous other Trump associates refused to answer committee questions in recent closed-door sessions.
Hicks’s attorney Robert Trout did not respond to a request to comment on what, if any, constraints on her testimony may have been imposed by the White House. The White House did not respond to requests for comment on her appearance.
Hicks was initially set to appear before the committee in January, but her interview was scrapped over questions about the scope of the questioning and the White House’s claims of executive privilege.
Earlier that week, Bannon and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski declined to answer many of the committee’s questions.
Bannon was instructed by the White House not to answer questions about the transition or his time in the White House, according to sources familiar with his testimony.
He returned to Capitol Hill this month after two days of interviews with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team, but refused to answer any questions other than those on a list preapproved by the White House – claiming he had been instructed to invoke executive privilege on Trump’s behalf.
Republicans and Democrats on the committee are now considering steps to hold Bannon in contempt of Congress.
Hicks has already been interviewed by Mueller’s team. She has also been questioned by the Senate Intelligence Committee, a source familiar with the committee’s schedule confirmed.
One of the few White House staffers that has been at Trump’s side since the early days of his campaign, Hicks was expected to face questions about the campaign, transition and first year of the administration — including her role in the White House response to The New York Times report about Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner’s meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower in June 2016.
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