Epstein Secrets

, Alexandra Preate, a conservative fundraiser and PR woman, was as disorganized as he was. After three marriages, Bannon lived his bachelor’s life on Capitol Hill in a row house known as the Breitbart Embassy that doubled as the Breitbart office—the life of a messy party. No sane person would hire Steven Bannon

e thing. The media has let Obama off the hook. Take the ideology away from it, this is complete amateur hour. I don’t know what Obama does. Nobody on Capitol Hill knows him, no business guys know him—what has he accomplished, what does he do?” “Where’s Donald on this?” asked Ailes, now with the clear implicati

t something. Everything. The billionaires had to rethink. So did everyone in the Trump orbit. The campaign staff, now suddenly in a position to snag West Wing jobs—career- and history-making jobs—had to see this odd, difficult, even ridiculous, and, on the face of it, ill-equipped person in a new light. He

he newly appointed deputy chief of staff, Katie Walsh, Reince Priebus’s deputy at the RNC, and together they had peeled off to inspect the now vacant West Wing. The carpet had been shampooed, but little else had changed. It was a warren of tiny offices in need of paint, not rigorously cleaned on a regular ba

and even romantic nature of his politics—the roguish and joie de guerre alt-right. Bannon had decamped here from the Breitbart Embassy on A Street on Capitol Hill. It was a one-bedroom graduate-student sort of apartment, in a mixed-use building over a mega-McDonald’s—quite belying Bannon’s rumored fortune—with

uld return to a refurbished West Wing—a paint job, new furniture, and new rugs, its look tilting toward the Trump Hotel—Steve Bannon would be back on Capitol Hill at the Breitbart Embassy, still, he was confident, the chief strategist for the Trump revolution. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020111 EPILOGUE: BANNON AND TRUMP

Republican Party had now become the symbol of its civil war. On that Monday, the president’s son-in-law appeared at the microphones in front of the West Wing to preview his statement to Senate investigators about the Trump campaign’s connections to Russia. Having almost never spoken before in public, he no

l influence with the president, but important members of the staff saw them as having this juice, and hence believed that they were the true north of West Wing advancement and power. Curiously, for all their callowness, Jared and Ivanka had become quite a fearsome presence, as feared by others as the two of

be discredited immediately, leaked that she had been leaking and hence had to be pushed out. On Sunday evening, Walsh had dinner with Bannon in his Capitol Hill redoubt, the Breitbart Embassy, during which, to no avail, he implored her to stay. On Monday she sorted out the details with Priebus—she would leave

as not only known by people outside the White House for the alacrity with which it returned calls and for the ease with which it seemed to accomplish West Wing tasks, it also seemed to be comprised of people who liked each other and who were dedicated to a common goal: eliminating as much friction as possibl

n Sachs, too, that in the middle of a Republican-controlled Washington and a virulent, if not anti-Semitic (at least toward liberal Jews), right-wing West Wing, the Kushner-Cohn Democrats appeared to be ascendant. Part of the credit went to Kushner, who showed an unexpected tenacity. Conflict averse—in the K

e Trump pres dency. This one wasn't about a relentless prosecutor but rather a betray( base. It was about the Wall that wasn't. The town houses on Capitol Hill, middle-class remnants of the nit teenth century, are cramped up-and-down affairs of modest parlor floor nook-y sitting rooms, and small bedrooms.

ct ... but we live in a world of imperfect." * * * Costa's story, which was posted online later that day, described Bannon as "pitching a plan to West Wing aides and congressional allies to cripple the federal probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to four people familiar with

ein, I4.2M) reports that when "asked why he wasn't taking part in the talks, Trump insisted that he was involved but didn't need to be physically on Capitol Hill to participate. 'I'm totally involved, I'm totally involved,' Trump said." On Monday, the New York Post <https://nypost.com/2020/08/03/trump-vows-t

en though the President has downplayed the need for COVID testing nationwide, today the White House announced mandatory random COVID testing for all West Wing staffers. This comes after several White House aides and reporters here have tested positive." The AP <https://apnews.corn/bf4c1b6018a458199b90a876

in, 14.2M) reports that when "asked why he wasn't taking part in the talks, Trump insisted that he was involved but didn't need to be physically on Capitol Hill to participate. 'I'm totally involved, I'm totally involved,' Trump said." On Monday, the New York Post (8/3, Nelson, Bowden, 4.57M) reports, Trump

n though the President has downplayed the need for COVID testing nationwide, today the White House announced mandatory random COVID testing for all West Wing staffers. This comes after several White House aides and reporters here have tested positive." The AP (8/3) reports the White House "said the measu

ething Trump has tried to make a hallmark of his first 30 months as president." But the only thing the president has really gone to the mat for on Capitol Hill — triggering the longest-ever government shutdown — was to get billions in additional spending to build his proposed border wall. When he couldn't g

"Yeah, but I won't be here," he reportedly said. Lately, the president has been recounting the advice he got from McConnell about spending money to West Wing aides. Two people with direct knowledge confirmed to my colleagues recently that the Kentucky Republican delivered that message during a private ph

edge confirmed that McConnell delivered that message in a June phone call about budget sequestration. ... "Mulvaney faces significant obstacles on Capitol Hill, where he made enemies on both sides of the aisle during his three terms as a bomb-throwing House conservative. Democrats openly disdain him as a

ump to care more about cutting spending and the deficit. But Trump has rebuffed many of their proposed cuts as deficits soar: "Trump recently told West Wing aides that Senate Page 17955 EFTA00047466 Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told him no politician had ever lost office for spending more

dealings with Ukraine in August, two top congressional staffers arrived in Kyiv on a routine business trip that ended up setting off alarm bells on Capitol Hill.' The aides "work for the Democratic leadership of the House Appropriations Committee, which is responsible for federal spending.' They had been "

Orr, Cook, Kumar, 4.29M) says while White House aides "dismissed the landmark event as a tedious affair," the "attempt to project calm within the West Wing was belied throughout the morning by a cascade of combative email blasts, tweets and statements that flowed from Trump's outside allies and his cam

in, 14.2M) reports that when "asked why he wasn't taking part in the talks, Trump insisted that he was involved but didn't need to be physically on Capitol Hill to participate. `I'm totally involved, I'm totally involved; Trump said." On Monday, the New York Post (8/3, Nelson, Bowden, 4.57M) reports, Trump

n though the President has downplayed the need for COVID testing nationwide, today the White House announced mandatory random COVID testing for all West Wing staffers. This comes after several White House aides and reporters here have tested positive." The AP (8/3) reports the White House "said the measu