Fox hires former White House leader Hope Hicks as director of communications



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Hope Hicks will relocate to Los Angeles as Corporate Communications Manager for New Fox. (Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post)

Hope Hicks, who advised Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential campaign and was his director of communications at the White House, was named Monday at the helm of New Fox's corporate communications, successor to 21st Century Fox.

Hicks, 29, will be responsible for the company that will oversee Fox News Channel and other entities controlled by Rupert Murdoch.

The hiring of Hicks follows Trump's appointment of various Fox News personalities, including Bill Shine, former co-chair of the network. Shine effectively replaced Hicks in June, when he was appointed chief of staff in charge of communications.

New Fox is the entity that will be formed after 21st Century has sold a large portion of its assets to Walt Disney Co. The sale of $ 71 billion is expected to be finalized early next year.

Hicks left the White House in February after a chaotic first year for the administration. Among other issues, she participated in the development of the White House's response to Special Advocate Robert S. Mueller III's inquiry into the possible links of the Trump campaign with Russian agents in the 2016 campaign. .

Hicks would have urged officials, including the president, to describe more transparently a meeting between Donald Trump Jr., presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and Russian representatives who would have given negative information about Hillary Clinton.

Trump allegedly dictated a misleading public statement issued by Hicks, calling the meeting a "short introductory meeting", during which participants "mainly discussed a program on the adoption of Russian children".

Hicks was previously one of the key communication agents of the Trump organization. First recruit of the Trump campaign, she joined him several months before the announcement of his candidacy in June 2015.

In New Fox, Hicks will succeed two leaders who oversaw 21st Century Fox's communications while Fox News was plagued by multiple allegations of sexual harassment, including co-founder Roger Ailes and the star Bill O'Reilly. Executives Julie Henderson and Nathaniel Brown do not join New Fox.

She will be based in Los Angeles, according to an announcement by Viet Dinh, the company's legal and political manager.

The nomination was hailed by the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who tweeted Monday morning"Fox will not find anyone smarter or more talented than Hope Hicks. So happy for my friend. They are more than lucky to have you and the East Coast is already missing. "

New Fox has also appointed Danny O'Brien to lead government relations. O'Brien was chief of staff to three Democratic senators: Joe Biden (Del.), Robert Menendez (N.J.) and Robert Torricelli (N.J.). He was also Director of Staff of the Senate External Relations Committee. He was most recently a manager at General Electric.

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