“We Look Like Domestic Terrorists”: Capitol Riot Panel Reveals Ex-Trump Aide’s Text Messages

Hope Hicks worked as communications director under Trump administration. (Reuters File Photo)

Hope Hicks, a former White House official, has said that then-President Donald Trump made her and other staffers look like “domestic terrorists” as his supporters overran the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, according to a report in The Guardian. The ex-Trump aide expressed the fear in text message she sent to Ivanka Trump’s chief of staff Julie Radford on the afternoon of the Capitol riot, the outlet further said. The attack on US Capitol was launched by Mr Trump’s supporters as they persisted in their efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in which he lost against Joe Biden.

Ms Hicks’ text messages were brought into public domain after being released by the House select committee investigating the Capitol riots released its final report last month, The Guardian report said.

“In one day he ended every future opportunity that doesn’t include speaking engagements at the local Proud Boys chapter,” Ms Hicks said in her text message to Ms Radford on the day of the riot.

“Yup,” Ms Radford replied.

In other messages, the former Trump aide said, “And all of us that didn’t have jobs lined up will be perpetually unemployed. I’m so mad and upset. We all look like domestic terrorists now,” she wrote.

“Oh yes I’ve been crying for an hour,” Ms Radford responded.

In its final report, the congressional panel outlined its case that the former US President should face criminal charges of inciting the deadly riot.

The report, which runs to more than 800 pages, is based on nearly 1,200 interviews over 18 months and hundreds of thousands of documents, as well as the rulings of more than 60 federal and state courts.

The report lists 17 specific findings, discusses the legal implications of actions by Mr Trump and some of his associates and includes criminal referrals to the Justice Department of the former US President and other individuals, according to Reuters.