Epstein Secrets

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

of liberals, who hoped to use these “incidental” wiretaps as a way to tie the Trump camp to a wide- ranging conspiracy with Russia. In short order, McGahn, Priebus, and Bannon, each with prior doubts about Flynn’s reliability and judgment—“a fuck-up,” according to Bannon—conferred about the Yates messag

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

Trump had taken it up.) Firing Comey will be a huge fundraising advantage, declared the president, a man who almost never talked about fundraising. McGahn tried to explain that in fact Comey himself was not running the Russia investigation, that without Comey the investigation would proceed anyway. McGa

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

3, 109, 188, 264-65, 288, 296, 304-5 May, Theresa, 258 McCain, John, 112, 306 McCarthy, Joe, 73 McConnell, Mitch, 32, 117, 301-2 McCormick, John, 167 McGahn, Don, 95, 212-14, 217 McLaughlin, John, 10 McMaster, H. R., 109, 176, 185, 188-93, 211, 235, 258, 263-68, 276-77, 288-89, 298-99, 304-5 McNerney, Jim

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

ing, mocking, falsetto-voice mimicry, and, as well, sweeping disparagements of his purpose and usefulness. "This is why we can't have nice things," McGahn uttered almost obses- sively under his breath, quoting the Taylor Swift song to comment on whatever egregious act Trump had just committed C... beca

perfect . . . 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 th

ling, mocking, falsetto-voice mimicry, and, as well, sweeping disparagements of his purpose and usefulness. “This is why we can’t have nice things,” McGahn uttered almost obses- sively under his breath, quoting the Taylor Swift song to comment on whatever egregious act Trump had just committed (“ . . bec