10 MICHAEL WOLFF SIEGE Hicks had been elevated to White House communications director, with unlimited resources. The more a determined team of G-men sifts, strit Raffel as her number two. and inspects, the greater the chance that both methodical and casv The trouble had arisen the previous summer. Both Hicks and Raffel crimes will be revealed. The more comprehensive the search, the mc had been on Air Force One in July 2017 as the news broke about Donald inevitable the outcome. The case of Donald Trump—with his history Trump Jr-s meeting in Trump Tower during the campaign with Russian bankruptcies, financial legerdemain, dubious associations, and gene: government go-betweens offering dirt on Hillary Clinton. During the sense of impunity—certainly seemed to offer prosecutors something flight back to the United States after the G20 summit in Germany, Hicks an embarrassment of riches. and Raffel aided the president in his efforts to issue a largely false story For his part, however, Donald Trump yet seemed to believe that | about the Trump Tower meeting, thus becoming part of the cover-up. skills and instincts were at least a match for all the thoroughness a1 Even though Raffel had been at the White House for a little more than resources of the United States Department of Justice. He even believ nine months, the Axios report said that his departure had been under dis- their exhaustive approach would work in his favor. “Boring. Confusi cussion for several months. That was untrue. It was an abrupt exit. for everybody, he said, dismissing the reports of the investigation pr The next day, just as abruptly, Hope Hicks—the person in the White vided by Dowd and others. “You can't follow any of this. No hook? House closest to the president—resigned as well. One of the many odd aspects of Trump's presidency was that The one person who perhaps knew more than anyone else about the did not see being president, either the responsibilities or the exposu workings of the Trump campaign