What Does Hope Hicks Know and Will She Tell It to the House Intelligence Committee?

It’s White House communications director Hope Hicks’ time in the spotlight.

By “spotlight” I mean she’ll be appearing before the House Intelligence Committee, as part of the ongoing Russia probe on Tuesday.

Initially, she was scheduled for some time in January, but Steve Bannon’s appearance before the committee prompted that postponement.

The fear is that she’ll pull a Bannon and sit, tight-lipped, rather than answer questions.

“We hope obviously that she will be fully cooperative, but at this point I don’t know what we can expect, except that we expect her to come in soon and we hope that she will fully cooperate,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said Monday, declining to confirm the exact date of her pending interview.

Bannon initially refused to answer questions about the presidential transition period in January by asserting executive privilege, a move that prompted the panel to issue a subpoena on the spot to compel him to return and answer their questions extending beyond Election Day.

At that time, Bannon said he’d tell Robert Mueller’s team whatever they wanted to know.

Bannon did appear again before the committee, but only would answer 25 questions that had been pre-approved by the White House.

Nope. Nothing shady, there.

Lawmakers are current exploring options to force Bannon to comply.

“In the case of Bannon, it was an insupportable and over-broad claim and he needs to be held in contempt and he is still pushing the majority to do what I think they are committed to doing,” Schiff added.

Hicks has already met with Robert Mueller’s team, as well as the Senate Intelligence Committee.

It’s a safe bet that she’s already been asked, and will be asked again about the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr., several members of Trump’s campaign team (including campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner), and Russians promising “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.

Hicks is said to have helped draft Trump Jr.’s deceptive response to questions about that meeting while with Trump Sr.