Robert Mueller has Hope Hicks
Donald Trump’s Communications Director Hope Hicks has spent the past two weeks embroiled in a White House scandal and coverup involving her boyfriend Rob Porter, who has been accused of domestic violence by two ex-wives. That’s made it easy to forget another storyline involving Hicks which quietly emerged in the same timeframe, and has now very much become real: as of two days ago Special Counsel Robert Mueller has her nailed for obstruction of justice.
Two weeks ago, former Trump legal spokesman Mark Corallo let leak to the media that he witnessed Hope Hicks telling Donald Trump that she would make sure Donald Trump Jr’s incriminating emails would never see the light of day. As we explained at the time, this meant that Mueller was going to be able to charge Hicks with not just conspiracy to obstruct justice or misprision of a felony, but actual obstruction of justice (link). This is crucial, because it would only give Hicks one way out: cut a plea deal and testify against Donald Trump.
Now it’s being reported by the Daily Beast that on Thursday, Corallo did in fact testify for Robert Mueller (link). That means Mueller now officially has the testimony he needs in order to move on Hicks. We’ve seen from his other moves this week that Mueller isn’t wasting any time aggressively moving forward. That means it’s a safe bet that Mueller has already informed Hicks that she has a short period of time to either cut a deal or be arrested.
So on top of everything else that Robert Mueller has accomplished this week, from the indictments of thirteen Russians who conspired to rig the election in Trump’s favor, to the guilty plea from a U.S. citizen who facilitated the Russian rigging, to the plea deal with Trump campaign adviser Rick Gates, we now know that Mueller has Hope Hicks too. It’s just a matter of whether she wants to be made an example of, or whether she wants to cut a deal against Trump.
