Hope Hicks apparently kept a White House diary

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published 2 March 2018

Outgoing White House communications director Hope Hicks has been one of President Trump's closest aides throughout his campaign and presidency, and she could tell us a lot about the inner workings of Trump's inner sanctum. That information is worth a lot of money — as much as $10 million for an advance on a tell-all book, according to Britain's Daily Mail — but it has also put her in the crosshairs of investigators looking into Trump's ties to Russia and potential obstruction of justice. Oh, and Hicks apparently kept a diary.

A "White House insider" tells the Daily Mail that Hicks secretly kept a "detailed diary of her White House work, and her interactions with the president." Hicks is "one of Donald Trump's most loyal colleagues and friends," the source added. "She's not one to destroy that relationship. And she is certainly under some sort of nondisclosure agreement." But whether or not the diary helps her write her lucrative memoir, it may not belong to her, according to former White House ethics lawyer Norm Eisen. If she kept a White House diary, he tweeted, it belongs to the U.S. government, "must be preserved" under the Presidential Records Act, and "raises issues about her handling of classified & WILL be subpoenaed."

Hicks has already met with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigators and the House and Senate intelligence committees, and her legal exposure won't end after she leaves the White House. Trump has regularly disregarded the advice from his lawyers to avoid discussing details of the Russia investigation with staff members, especially Hicks, and "I think the president has put her in a very precarious position," a senior Trump administration official tells Politico. She might need to sell her story to pay her legal bills. You can read more about her legal liability at Politico.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.