Why it’s such a big deal that Hope Hicks is defying Donald Trump

| 12:01 pm EDT June 5, 2019
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You’d have to ask Hope Hicks why she decided to openly defy Donald Trump yesterday by agreeing to turn over some of the documents that had been subpoenaed by the House Judiciary Committee. Maybe she cares more about her reputation than she does about whatever Trump might try to threaten her with. Or maybe she simply decided that it was better to follow the law than to side with a criminal president. But whatever her reasoning, this is a big deal.

It’s not just about the documents that Hope Hicks is turning over to the House. Maybe they’re a smoking gun proving Donald Trump’s obstruction crimes, and maybe they’re completely worthless. We wouldn’t know. But the point is that she chose to defy Trump’s illegal instruction to defy the subpoena. And you know what? The sun still came up today. She’s still here. Trump didn’t wave a magic wand and send her to Mars.

This sends a clear precedent that unless you know Donald Trump has a specific way to retaliate against you in particular, there’s no harm in complying with a House subpoena. There are reports that Trump threatened to illegally cost Don McGahn’s law firm millions of dollars in business if he cooperated. We still don’t know how Trump convinced McGahn’s former deputy Annie Donaldson to put herself in legal harm by refusing to cooperate. But Trump clearly can’t stop everyone from cooperating with the House probe into his scandals.

The deadline hasn’t yet arrived for Hope Hicks to show up and testify, and Donald Trump hasn’t yet officially given her the illegal instruction not to testify. So we’ll see what she decides to do once that juncture arrives later this month – but she’s already defied him on the other part of the subpoena. As the House taps other former Trump people to testify against him, the odds just went up that some of them will say yes. After all, Hicks just shattered the illusion that Trump has some magical way of destroying them all if they dare to defy him.