Epstein Secrets

19995 11 WIRETAP ith three screens in his White House bedroom, the president was his own best cable y Y curator. But for print he depended on Hope Hicks. Hicks, who had been his junior aide for most of the campaign and his spokesperson (although, as he would point out, he was really his own spokespers

the media that could not be positively spun. The day after his “reset” speech before the joint session of Congress presented a certain conundrum for Hicks. Here were the first generally good notices for the administration. But in the Post, the Times, and the New Yorker that day, there was also an ugly b

artment to prompt them to develop DOJ relationships and sources, and now they were always up on DOJ gossip. Flynn was going to throw him in the soup. Manafort was going to roll. And it wasn’t just Russia. It was Atlantic City. And Mar-a-Lago. And Trump SoHo. Both Chris Christie and Rudy Giuliani—each a sel

d ever receive close scrutiny, would now be subjected to microscopic review. His nemesis, Oleg Deripaska—still pursuing his $17 million claim against Manafort and himself looking for favorable treatment from federal authorities who had restricted his travel to the United States—was continuing his own deep i

n aggrieved, unyielding, and threatening president dominated the discussion, pushing HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020079 into line his daughter and her husband, Hicks, and Raffel. Kasowitz—the lawyer whose specific job was to keep Trump at arm’s length from Russian-related matters—was kept on hold on the phone for

s the ultimate facilitator of unmediated behavior. His impulses and thoughts—unedited, unreviewed, unchallenged—not only passed through him, but, via Hicks, traveled out into the world without any other White House arbitration. “The problem isn’t Twitter, it’s Hope,” observed one communication staffer.

gn chairman, Paul Manafort, and the campaign’s most influential voice, Jared Kushner, because: (a) a high-level conspiracy was being coordinated; (b) Manafort and Kushner, not taking the campaign very HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_020076 seriously, and without a thought of any consequence here, were merely entertained

29, 204, 234, 237-38, 252-53, 255 Lewinsky, Monica, 233 Libya, 6, 42 Lighthizer, Robert, 133 Limbaugh, Rush, 128, 222 Lowe, Rob, 42 Luntz, Frank, 201 Manafort, Paul, 12, 17, 28, 101, 210, 240, 253-56, 278, 280 Manhattan, Inc., 74 Manigault, Omarosa, 109 Mar-a-Lago, 4, 69, 99, 106, 159, 189, 193-94, 210, 228

s 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 14, House communications director. She had witnessed most everyth EFTA00316518 6 MICHAEL WOLFF She saw what the president saw: she knew wh

lared wannabe and marginal players. The president had never met them, could not remember them, or had a limited acquaintance with them. "I know Mr. Manafort—I haven't spoken to him in a long time, but I know him: declared a dismissive Trump, pulling a line from the "who dat?" page of his playbook. The

ormer campaign man- ager Paul Manafort, his former national security advisor Michael Flynn, the eager-beaver junior adviser George Papadopoulos, and Manafort's business partner and campaign official Rick Gates. This series of legal moves could be classically read as a methodical, step-by-step approach to

Advisor Michael Flynn (after just 25 days in office), and Press Secretary Sean Spiceriag Close personal aides to Trump including Steve Bannon, Hope Hicks, John McEntee, and Keith Schiller quit or were forced out 1431 Some, including Hicks and McEntee, later returned to the White House in different po

itical consultant Roger Stone, were connected to Russian officials. 81[559) Russian agents were overheard during the campaign saying they could use Manafort and Flynn to influence Trump.156°) Members of Trump's campaign and later his White House staff, particular l Flynn, were in contact with Russian of