The full transcript from Hope Hicks' interview with the House judiciary committee was expected later this week. Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo
June 20 (UPI) -- Former White House communications director Hope Hicks told the House judiciary committee she found President Donald Trump's willingness to accept foreign help during an election to be "troubling," committee chairman Jerrold Nadler said Thursday.
Hicks spoke behind closed doors with the committee Wednesday about her time as an aide on the Trump campaign and as a member of the White House communications team. Members of the committee said she largely refused to answer questions related to her time working for the White House.
But Nadler, D-N.Y., said Hicks broke with Trump on the issue of foreign assistance. During an interview with ABC News that aired Sunday, Trump said he'd accept foreign intelligence on political opponents during the 2020 presidential election. He also said he might not alert the FBI that he received such intelligence.
"I think you might want to listen, there isn't anything wrong with listening," he told George Stephanopoulos. "It's not an interference, they have information -- I think I'd take it.
"If I thought there was something wrong, I'd go maybe to the FBI -- if I thought there was something wrong."
Nadler shared Hicks' reaction to that interview during prepared remarks for a House judiciary hearing on the Robert Mueller report Thursday.
"Yesterday, during her transcribed interview, Ms. Hicks made clear that she understood the president to be serious when he said that he would accept foreign interference in our elections," he said. "She also made clear that even she knew that such foreign assistance should be rejected and reported to the FBI.
"His invitation to foreign actors is so alarming that even one of his most loyal former aides, Hope Hicks, knew that the president's statement was troubling."
A full transcript of Hicks' interview with the judiciary committee was expected to be released later this week.
Hicks resigned from the White House in March 2018 and now works as a chief communications officer and executive vice president at Fox Corp., which owns Fox News.