Epstein Secrets

MUELLER 6o 6. MICHAEL COHEN 75 7. THE WOMEN 88 8. MICHAEL FLYNN 99 9. MIDTERMS 113 10. KUSHNER 125 11. HANNITY 1 43 12. TRUMP ABROAD 156 13. TRUMP AND PUTIN 169 EFTA00316513 x CONTENTS 14.100 DAYS 185 15. MANAPORT 196 16. PECKER, COHEN, WEISSELBERG 209 17. MCCAIN, WOODWARD, ANONYMOUS 223

S 257 21. NOVEMBER 6 268 22. SHUTDOWN 282 23. THE WALL 295 EPILOGUE: THE REPORT 309 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 317 INDEX 319 Author's Note Shortly after Donald Trump's inauguration as the forty-fifth president of the United States, I was allowed into the West Wing as a sideline observer. My book Fire and Fury was

ENTS 317 INDEX 319 Author's Note Shortly after Donald Trump's inauguration as the forty-fifth president

7 INDEX 319 Author's Note Shortly after Donald Trump's inauguration as the forty-fifth president of the

tember budget bill. The next time it carne up, the Wall would be funded or, he threatened, the government would be shut down. Even the hardest-core Trumpers in Congress seemed content not to have to die on the actual battlefield of funding the Wall, since that would mean embracing or at least enduring a

ow his rage. Top people from the Bush White House, the FBI, and the Justice Department almost came to literal blows at the bedside of the ailing AG John Ashcroft—James Comey himself standing in the way of the White House representatives trying to get Ash- croft to renew a domestic surveillance program—with th

influential contacts, including William Clinton, Donald Trump, Kevin Spacey, and Alan Dershowitz, and ot

he deal—called a non-prosecution agreement—essentially shut down an ongoing FBI probe . . . .” Julie K. Brown, “Perversion of Justice: How a future Trump cabinet member gave a serial sex abuser the deal of a lifetime,” Miami Herald, Nov. 28, 2018. The NPA, however, was finalized and signed 91

th the beginning of the federal investigation, identified him as a wealthy Palm Beach resident with influential contacts, including William Clinton, Donald Trump, Kevin Spacey, and Alan Dershowitz, and other “prominent businessmen, academics and scientists.”210 Villafaña, Lourie, Sloman, and Acosta learned

as articulated those priorities in policy memoranda issued to all federal prosecutors. As applicable here, on September 22, 2003, Attorney General John Ashcroft issued a memorandum regarding “Department Policy Concerning Charging Criminal Offenses, Disposition of Charges, and Sentencing” (Ashcroft Memo). T

er failed efforts to settle the case, the parties’ cross motions for summary judgment remained pending for more than a year. In 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Acosta to be Secretary of Labor. At his March 2017 confirmation hearing, Acosta was questioned only briefly about the Epstein case. On

ed to the President his resignation as 4 See, e.g., Ashley Collman, “Stunning new report details Trump’s labor secretary’s role in plea deal for billionaire sex abuser,” The Business Insider, Nov. 29, 2018; Cynthia McFadden, “New Focus on Trump Labor

ing for more than a year. In 2017, President Donald Trump nominated Acosta to be Secretary of Labor.

rt. 65 This policy was set forth in a September 22, 2003 memorandum from then Attorney General John Ashcroft regarding “Department Policy Concerning Charging Criminal Offenses, Disposition of Charges, and Sentencing” (known as the “Ashcroft Memo”), which p

Stanford mathematician and Field’s Medal Winner, Donald Ornstein, proved that in statistical studies of e

eir feelings of being on the side of God by dividing people into those that are like them and good and those that President Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft calls the evil doing “bad guys.” As noted previously, psychoanalytic theory posits that the evil doing others may represent the projected repository

re not with us you are against us, he proclaims. Donald Rumsfeld berates our European allies who disagre

on Iraq in no uncertain terms, and he has a visceral aversion to international cooperation, be it with NATO or UN peacekeepers in Afghanistan. And John Ashcroft accuses those who opposed the USA Patriot Act of giving aid and comfort to the enemy. These are the views of extremists, not adherents to an open

ist Stephen K. Bannon and the appointment of retired general John Kelly as chief of staff. This new account begins in February 2018 at the outset of Trumps second year in office, with the situation now profoundly altered. The pres- ident’s capricious furies have been met by an increasingly organized and

PRISES 257 21. NOVEMBER 6 268 22. SHUTDOWN 282 23. THE WALL 295 EPILOGUE: THE REPORT 309 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 317 INDEX 319 Author’s Note Shortly after Donald Trump’s inauguration as the forty-fifth president of the United States, I was allowed into the West Wing as a sideline observer. My book Fire and Fury was th

sident that he could continue to provide him with valuable help. To no avail: on March 22, Dowd reluc- tantly resigned, sending another bitter former Trumper into the world. = THE DO-OVER he day John Dowd was fired, Steve Bannon was sitting at his dinin; room table trying to forestall another threat to

llow his rage. Top people from the Bush White House, the FBI, and the Justice Department almost came to literal blows at the bedside of the ailing AG John Ashcroft—James Comey himself standing in the way of the White House representatives trying to get Ash- croft to renew a domestic surveillance program—with the