Former President Donald Trump grew angry with a correspondent for NBC News this spring and ordered that they be kicked off his plane for asking about his ongoing hush money probe.
The ex-president would go on to be charged with 32 criminal counts of falsifying business records to hide a hush money scheme.
According to audio obtained by Vanity Fair, Hillyard questioned Mr Trump during a gaggle aboard “Trump Force One” as it sat on the ground in Waco, Texas, following the president’s rally there on 25 March.
After suggestions that he was growing frustrated or anxious about the probe, Mr Trump grew visibly incensed and ordered Hillyard to stop asking questions.
When Hillyard again persisted in his line of questioning, the president then barked: “Alright, let’s go, get him out of here...Outta here.
It isn’t clear if Hillyard was actually removed from the plane, or simply prevented from asking further questions.
CNN’s Jim Acosta was famously referred to as “fake news” by the president and prevented from asking questions during a press briefing in early 2017, days before his inauguration. »