Epstein Secrets

virtual policy, it has also been more open to the media than any White House in recent memory. In the beginning, I sought a level of formal access to this White House, something of a fly-on- the-wall status. The president himself encouraged this idea. But, given the many fiefdoms in the Trump White House that came

heeding Senate leader Mitch McConnell’s prescription that “this president will sign whatever is put in front of him,” while also taking advantage of the White House’s lack of political and legislative experience and outsourcing as much policy as possible to Capitol Hill. In the early weeks of the administration, P

om he had never met before, for positions whose importance Trump did not particularly understand. Ailes, a veteran of the Nixon, Reagan, and Bush 41 White Houses, was growing worried by the president-elect’s lack of immediate focus on a White House structure that could serve and protect him. He tried to impres

cific ideas about how to turn his themes and vitriol into policy, nor a team that could reasonably unite behind him. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_019969 In most White Houses, policy and action flow down, with staff trying to implement what the president wants—or, at the very least, what the chief of staff says the preside

r Stone, was noisily ousted by Lewandowski, and then Trump exponentially increased the public dirty-clothes-washing by suing Nunberg. Lewandowski and Hope Hicks, the PR aide put on the campaign by Ivanka Trump, had an affair that ended in a public fight on the street—an incident cited by Nunberg in his respon

n Trump's inner circle. Chief of Staff John Kelly, fed up with Trump—just as Trump was f up with him—seemed surely on the way out. Kelly had joined the Wh House, replacing Reince Priebus, Trump's first chief of staff, in Aug 2017, charged with bringing management discipline to a chaotic W Wing. But by mid-f

mp campaign, arguably among the most careless about election law compliance in recent history. Before joining the Trump administra- tion, McGahn had no White House or executive branch experience. He had never worked in the Justice Department or, in fact, anywhere in gov- ernment. Formerly an attorney for a nonp

affel, who, like Kushn was a Democrat, had worked for Hiltzik Strategies, the New York Pub relations firm that represented ivanka's clothing line. Hope Hicks, who had also worked for the Hiltzik firm—perhaps b known for having long represented the film producer Harvey Weinste caught, in the fall of 2017,

thirty, Ryan called the president to say he was short fifteen to twenty votes and needed to pull the vote. Bannon, backed by Mulvaney, who had become the White House’s Hill operative, continued to urge an immediate vote. A defeat here would be a major defeat for the Republican leadership. That suited Bannon just fin

ore and more seemed to be. Meanwhile, virtually everybody believed that a large measure of the fault lay in Reince Priebus, who had failed to create a White House that could protect the president from himself—or from Bannon or from his own children. At the same time, believing that the fundamental problem lay i

d. It was a turning point. Until now, Trump’s inner circle had been mostly game to defend him. But after the wiretap tweets, everybody, save perhaps Hope Hicks, moved into a state of queasy sheepishness, if not constant incredulity. Sean Spicer, for one, kept repeating his daily, if not hourly, mantra: “You

lic enemy; they expected nothing of him. But Priebus and Spicer HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020089 they regarded as functionaries, and their job was to support the White House’s goals, which included their goals and interests. Spicer, ever ridiculed in the media for his cockamamie defense of the White House and a seeming dum

ce his exit from the White House six weeks before—he was on a crash all-sushi diet. “That building,” said his friend David Bossie, speaking about all White Houses but especially the Trump White House, “takes perfectly healthy people and turns them into old, unhealthy people.” But Bannon, who Bossie had declared

gton, Sean Spicer and everybody else from the communications office was relegated to the back of the plane and excluded from the panicky discussions. Hope Hicks became the senior communications strategist, with the president, as always, her singular client. In the days following, that highest political state

ed that the emails, released publicly by committee chairman Jim Jordan on Thursday, suggest that in some cases Facebook and Instagram complied with the White House's content-moderation requests in order to avoid public and private backlash. The article noted that Jordan has also invited "Twitter Files" investigat

rmation, to which he pleaded not guilty. Secret Service agents, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Jared Kushner, and former Trump aide Hope Hicks also testified before the grand jury. In mid-July, Smith informed Trump he was a target in the investigation, and his attorneys met with Smith's tea

ded that the emails, released publicly by committee chairman Jim Jordan on Thursday, suggest that in some cases Facebook and Instagram complied with the White House's content-moderation requests in order to avoid public and private backlash. The article noted that Jordan has also invited "Twitter Files" investiga

rmation, to which he pleaded not guilty. Secret Service agents, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Jared Kushner, and former Trump aide Hope Hicks also testified before the grand jury. In mid-July, Smith informed Trump he was a target in the investigation, and his attorneys met with Smith's tea

revelations that have clouded most of his tenure in office. -- Hicks's comments are newly relevant against the backdrop of the impeachment inquiry. The White House's categorical refusal to comply with subpoenas for documents, from phone records to emails, has made it harder for investigators to corroborate sworn

will never get out? During two interviews with FBI agents and members of Bob Mueller's team last year, former White House communications director Hope Hicks recounted the president's reaction to the discovery of damning emails about the meeting his son Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law Jared Kushner and camp

who was anywhere near it. + + + The ultimate keeper of the secrets from the campaign, the transition, through the first year in the White House was Hope Hicks, the W House communications director. She had witnessed most everyth HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_021126 --- PAGE BREAK --- 6 MICHAEL WOLFF She saw what the p

p didn’t want a chief of staff who would focus him. Trump, it was clear, didn’t want a chief of staff who would tell him anything. Trump did not want a White House that ran by any method other than to satisfy his desires. Someone happened to mention that John E Kennedy didn’t have a chief of staff, and now Trump

ake Bentonville, Arkansas, where Walmart had its headquarters, over Washington, D.C. For a generation or more, the arm’s-length relationship between the White House and the Department of Justice often seemed more like a never-ending conflict between armed camps. Bill Clinton could hardly stomach his attorney gene