DEMS/HOUSE OF REPS/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP PEOPLE: “After weeks of simmering frustration, House Democrats took their first shot on Wednesday [6-19-19] at questioning a key figure from Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into whether President Trump obstructed justice. They were not entirely happy with the results. Behind closed doors, lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee pressed Hope Hicks, one of Mr. Trump’s closest former aides, for nearly seven hours on her recollections of contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia, as well as on episodes documented by Mr. Mueller, the special counsel, in which Mr. Trump tried to assert control over investigations into those contacts. And they resurrected an older accusation against Mr. Trump: his role in an illegal scheme to make hush payments to two women during his 2016 campaign. But if the hearing held out the promise of kick-starting Democrats’ stalled investigations into Mr. Trump, it quickly veered toward an increasingly familiar outcome. It took place in private rather than public.”
–Nicholas Fandos, “Hope Hicks Declines to Answer Lawmakers’ Questions on Transition and White House,” The New York Times online, June 19, 2019