In a surprising turn of events, White House Communications Director Hope Hicks announced she will resign, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
The 29-year-old is one of President Trump's most loyal and longest-serving aides. She's been by his side since the early days of his campaign and was appointed as communications director in July, after the short-lived, controversial term of Anthony Scaramucci.
In recent weeks, Hicks has been embroiled in several major scandals. In January, it was reported she allegedly was directly involved with the White House response to a story about how Donald Trump Jr.' met with a Kremlin-connected lawyer in the summer of 2016 to allegedly get political dirt on Hillary Clinton. According to The New York Times, former spokesman for Trump's legal team Mark Corallo alleges that Hicks said during a conference call that emails written by Trump Jr. about the meeting "will never get out."
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Then, earlier this month, questions were raised about the way Hicks handled the White House's initial denial of domestic abuse allegations against former aide Rob Porter, who also happens to be her rumoured boyfriend. (Porter ended up resigning from his post.)
On Tuesday, she testified before the House Intelligence Committee as part of the lawmakers' investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential election. There, she said that her job at times required her to tell "white lies."
Hicks has been Trump's right-hand woman over the past few years. In a statement to The Times, the president said: "Hope is outstanding and has done great work for the last three years. She is as smart and thoughtful as they come, a truly great person. I will miss having her by my side but when she approached me about pursuing other opportunities, I totally understood. I am sure we will work together again in the future."
According to The Times, she had reportedly been considering leaving her post for a few months.