The Chairman of House Judiciary Committee, Jerrold Nadler has reportedly issued subpoenas for Hope Hicks and Annie Donaldson. Both are key figures at the core of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Hope Hicks served as the president’s former White House communications director. Annie Donaldson was former chief of staff to ex-White House counsel Donald McGahn. Donaldson’s notes were critical to a section of the special counsel’s report on Russian interference that pertains to the president’s potential obstruction of justice. Hicks also played a major role in Trump’s response to explosive news reports regarding the infamous Trump Tower meeting with Russian operatives.
On Tuesday, the Judiciary Committee of the House reportedly issued the subpoenas demanding documents and testimony from both women as part of their investigation into Trump’s supposed obstruction of justice. The committee has requested Hicks to speak at a public hearing regarding her experience working in the Trump administration and on the president’s 2016 campaign. Donaldson has been called in for a private deposition. Announcement of the subpoenas arrived after McGahn defied his own subpoena by failing to show up to the committee to testify. The president had reportedly instructed the former White House counsel not to appear at the event.
The special counsel’s report outlined one of the report’s key figures that how Trump sought to restrict and at times outright halt the federal investigation through first-hand accounts like that of McGahn. Trump has vowed to fight all of the subpoenas issued by the U.S Congress. The move to subpoena the former top White House officials arrived as a growing number of Democrats have called for impeachment proceedings against Trump after ordering McGahn not to testify. Moreover, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, Doug Collins has claimed Democrats were trying desperately to make something out of nothing.