Lawmakers: Hope Hicks testified that Mike Flynn asked her to lie during the transition

Hope Hicks told lawmakers this week that disgraced national security adviser Mike Flynn had asked her to lie during the presidential transition.

The White House communications director, who tendered her resignation the next day, told the House Intelligence Committee that she had told "white lies" on behalf of the administration, reported CBS News.

Hicks repeated the phrase after a lawmaker used the words, and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) then "went through the phone book" and asked whether anyone else had asked her to lie, U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney (R-FL) told the network.

Those individuals included the president himself and "the entire Trump family," the Florida Republican said, as well as Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort, Corey Lewandowski and Michael Cohen.

Rooney said Hicks gave a "blanket" response and declined to answer in each instance, and he complained that she shouldn't have been asked the "bullsh*t question" in the first place.

"The whole line of questioning was a trap," Rooney said. "They sent her down a rabbit hole that she could not get out of -- and it was completely unfair."

However, Hicks did comment on Flynn, who was forced out of the White House in February 2017 over his secret contacts with Russia and pleaded guilty in December to lying to FBI agents.

Swalwell told CBS News that Hicks specified that Flynn had never asked her to lie for him "in the campaign," but his communications with the Russian ambassador came during the transition period.

The California Democrat asked if Flynn had asked her to lie during that period between the election and President Donald Trump's inauguration.

Hicks told Swalwell that Flynn had asked her to present information as true that she later learned to be false, and the lawmaker told CBS that she appeared to be selectively protecting Trump associates and administration officials.

The lawmakers did not say whether Hicks specified what misleading information Flynn had instructed her to disseminate.

Rooney, who recently announced he would not seek re-election, said the exchange and subsequent reports showed why Congress should end its investigation into Trump campaign ties to Russia.

"(Leaks have) poisoned this whole investigation," Rooney said. "Why would anyone come and interview with us anymore, ever again?"