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

ls— the then candidate polishing off a pint of Haagen-Dazs vanilla as he happily and idly opined about a range of topics while his aides, Hope Hicks, Corey Lewandowski, and Jared Kushner, went in and out of the room. Conversations with members of the campaign’s team continued through the Republican Convention in Cle

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

cks, seeming to understand the insular nature of Trumpworld, dated exclusively inside the bubble, picking the baddest boys in it: cam- paign manager Corey Lewandowski during the campaign and presiden- tial aide Rob Porter in the White House. As the relationship between Hicks and Porter unfolded in the fall of 2017

akashima report. "The latest removals came as DHS's top cybersecurity official, Christopher Krebs, told colleagues he, too, expected to be fired by the White House at any moment. ... His agency joined state and local election officials in releasing a statement Thursday refuting claims by the president and his

d for her resignation, as well as Bryan Ware, a senior policy aide at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The requests came from the White House's Presidential Personnel Office, whose 3o-year-old director, John McEntee, has recently intensified efforts to purge appointees who have failed to de

o forestall a government shutdown." • Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), the dean of the House, tested positive. (Colby Itkowitz) • Trump campaign adviser Corey Lewandowski and Republican National Committee chief of staff Richard Walters also tested positive, bringing this latest outbreak among Trump's inner circle to

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

as finally over.) Over the eighteen months of the campaign, the traveling group usually consisted of the candidate, Hicks, and the campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski. In time, she became— in addition to an inadvertent participant in history, about which she was quite as HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020036 astonished as anyon

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

, it caused a disruption in the family dynamic. Other people were suddenly eager to be Donald Trump’s key lieutenants. There were the outsiders, like Corey Lewandowski, the campaign manager, but there was also the insider, brother-in-law Jared. Trump, not unusually for a family-run company, made everybody compete fo

arrative as it works behind the scenes to not only help safeguard the election but also to reassure the public despite messages to the contrary from the White House." In addition, the Washington Post <https://www.washingtonpost.corn/politics/2020-election- security/2020/10/24/4b290e2-1479-11eb-ad6f-36c93e6e94fb_

do.' But he added, 'Anytime there's someone in harm's way, we have an obligation to let people know for contract-tracing.'" Trump campaign adviser Corey Lewandowski, on NBC's Meet The Press <hftps://playvideo.bulletinintelligence.com/lacb1506bb37449081c89e818bac31d0?pubid=fbi> (10/25, 3.09M), said, "I would mak

icks, seeming to understand the insular nature of Trumpworld, dated exclusively inside the bubble, picking the baddest boys in it: cam- paign manager Corey Lewandowski during the campaign and presiden- tial aide Rob Porter in the White House. As the relationship between Hicks and Porter unfolded in the fall of 2017,

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