Free Republic

President Trump’s executive assistant took the unusual step Sunday night of defending the president publicly against a report that he spends most of his days in unstructured “executive time.” ~snip~ “What these don’t show are the hundreds of calls and meetings @realDonaldTrump takes everyday,” Ms. Westerhout tweeted. “This POTUS is working harder for the American people than anyone in recent history.”

If Attorney General Jeff Sessions has his way, National Security Council staffers will undergo lie detector tests to find White House leakers. The Trump administration has been plagued by a series of leaks, ranging from transcripts of calls between President Trump and foreign leaders to reports of palace intrigue from top White House officials. Axios reports: Attorney General Jeff Sessions has told associates he wants to put the entire National Security Council staff through a lie detector test to root out leakers. It’s unclear whether this will ever happen, but Sessions floated the idea to multiple people, as recently as...

Dr. Sebastian Gorka. Images of the emails were posted to Twitter by Joyce Karam. https://twitter.com/Joyce_Karam/status/902368579064094720 The emails banning Gorka from the White House are time-stamped 6:45 p.m. and 7:14 p.m. News of Gorka’s resignation was first reported by the Federalist around 8 p.m EDT.

President Trump’s fiery response to the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, had a lot of media outlets and Democrats upset. Apparently, this also included Ivanka Trump and White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner — whose displeasure is regularly leaked to the media. The New York Times’ Glenn Thrush reported this week, via an anonymous source, that Kushner and Ms. Trump had urged the president to denounce the white nationalist protesters “more forcefully.” Thrush reported the news just after Trump had defended his recent statements. “You look at both sides. I think there is blame on both on both sides. I have...

President Trump has told close associates that he believes Steve Bannon is behind damaging leaks about White House colleagues, putting the chief strategist's job in fresh jeopardy, sources close to the president tell me. Trump has told associates he's fed up with what he sees as self-promotion by Bannon, who did not join the core team this week at the president's golf club in Bedminster, N.J. Bannon's time with Trump has diminished since the new chief of staff, retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, took over and imposed discipline on the circus around the Oval Office. Bannon declined to comment. Why...

The Washington Post has obtained transcripts of two conversations President Trump had with foreign leaders: one with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and another with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. The transcripts were prepared by the White House but have not been released. The Post is publishing reproductions rather than original documents in order to protect sources. The reproductions below also include minor spelling and grammatical mistakes that appeared in the documents.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Raised voices could be heard through the thick door to the Oval Office as John Kelly — then secretary of Homeland Security — offered some tough talk to President Donald Trump. Kelly, a whip-cracking retired general who was sworn in as White House chief of staff on Monday, had demanded to speak to the president alone after Trump complained loudly that the U.S. was admitting travelers from countries he viewed as high risk. Kelly first tried to explain to Trump that the admissions were standard — some people had legitimate reasons to visit the country — but...

According to reporter Ryan Lizza from The New Yorker, Scaramucci wants FBI, DOJ to investigate Reince Priebus for leaking his Financial disclosure! In case there's any ambiguity in his tweet I can confirm that Scaramucci wants the FBI to investigate Reince for leaking. — Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) July 27, 2017 Yes https://t.co/CtX0W8h7hp — Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) July 27, 2017 **UPDATE** According to National Journal’s Josh Kraushaar, Ryan Lizza reported Scaramucci has ALREADY reported Reince to the FBI over the leak. .@RyanLizza reports on CNN that Mooch already contacted the FBI about Reince // not just a threat (as he said...

At least two separate news organizations are reporting that three distinct leakers have been identified at the White House and that President Donald Trump is expected to fire them when he returns from his first overseas trip. “CBS News has confirmed from two sources that three leakers of classified information at the White House have been identified and are expected to be fired,” CBS News reported this week, adding, “Officials within the Trump White House believe leaks of Mr. Trump’s conversation with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are a ‘deliberate attempt’ by officials who are holdovers from President Obama’s administration...

One America News was first to report that three White House staffers have been identified for leaking classified information. The President is expected to fire multiple people upon his return from the Middle East and Europe.

Conservative reporter Matt Drudge warned Wednesday about dangerous leaks coming from the White House following President Donald Trump’s firing of now former FBI Director James Comey. He suggested a “house cleaning” might be in order for the Trump administration to survive. "We never got 1 damaging leak out of Obama White House staff in 8 yrs," Drudge tweeted Wednesday. "Under Trump, they appear hourly. BIG DANGER: Small leaks sink ships!!" “The Drudge Report” founder linked to a story from politics and business news site Axios, which cited sources describing the moments immediately after Trump fired Comey late Tuesday afternoon

A top aide to President Donald Trump is leaving his administration. Two senior White House officials said Thursday that Deputy Chief of Staff Katie Walsh is leaving her job. The officials were not authorized to speak before a formal announcement is made and spoke on condition of anonymity.

A top White House aide is leaving her post as deputy chief of staff in the first major shakeup of the Trump administration. Katie Walsh, who was previously Reince Priebus’ chief of staff at the Republican National Committee, will serve as an adviser to America First, a group outside the government that aims to bolster the Trump agenda and will also serve on the RNC. A White House official confirmed the move and said, “Katie Walsh has accepted a position with an outside organization. She has been a tremendous asset to the President and we are confident she will be...

Donald Trump’s White House has sprung a remarkable number of leaks since his inauguration. The question is where they’re coming from. Barely a day goes by without some unusual tale emerging from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Recent examples in a single New York Times story included the assertion that White House aides have held meetings in the dark because they can’t figure out how the lights work and that the president is fond of watching television alone in his bathrobe. Trump took to Twitter to assert that the Times “writes total fiction” about him, while White House press secretary Sean Spicer insisted that...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Wednesday blasted the Obama administration over the disclosure of classified intelligence operations, leaks he said came from the “highest levels” at the White House. “This is the most highly classified information and it’s now been leaked by the administration at the highest levels at the White House and that’s not acceptable,” McCain said on CBS "This Morning." On Tuesday, McCain said the Senate Armed Services Committee would hold hearings about leaks detailing a U.S. cyberattack against Iran’s nuclear program and called for a special counsel to investigate the matter. A report last week in The...

Loose talk by senior members of the Obama administration may have condemned Shakil Afridi, a Pakistani doctor who assisted America's hunt for Osama bin Laden, to 33-year term in prison on trumped-up charges. According to Fox News, an official 357-page report by the Pakistani government that examined the security failures that allowed the U.S. to evade that country's defenses in the raid on May 2, 2011 concluded that Dr. Afridi was implicated by a "statement by the U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who was the CIA Director when May 2 happened, confirming the role of Dr. Afridi in making the...

(CNN) - The FBI has begun an investigation into apparent leaks of classified information involving a U.S. cyberwarfare program against Iran, a U.S. official said Wednesday. FBI spokesman Paul Bresson had no comment on the reported investigation. Some leading senators have called for a congressional inquiry as well. But the White House pushed back Wednesday against suggestions that it could be leaking classified information for political purposes. "This administration takes all appropriate and necessary steps to prevent leaks of classified information or sensitive information that could risk ongoing counterterrorism or intelligence operations," Carney said aboard Air Force One as the...

When they published their revealing book last August about the nation’s fight against terrorism, the authors, two New York Times national security reporters, immediately felt heat from the Pentagon for dishing too much operational info about the killing of Osama bin Laden. “I was stopped by a very senior officer in the special operations community who basically wanted to rip my lungs out,” said Thom Shanker, who co-authored “Counterstrike: The Untold Story of America's Secret Campaign Against Al Qaeda,” with Eric Schmitt. But, he revealed at a counter terrorism expo this week, the info came directly and officially from the...

Newt Gingrich said Friday that a former CIA official has told him that President Obama's administration has leaked more secrets than any administration that official had seen. "You have an Obama administration who's dedicated to appeasing our enemies and dedicated to giving away our secrets," Gingrich said in an interview with WHO radio in Des Moines. "I've had a former very senior CIA person tell me this White House has leaked more secrets than any White House in his lifetime." A senior Obama campaign official said in response: "His definition of appeasement must be decimating al Qaeda's leadership." Obama has...

The reporters being subpoenaed or sent to jail for refusing to reveal their sources to the special prosecutor investigating White House leaks of the name of an undercover CIA agent are all friends of mine. Or at least they were until this column. I do not want them to go to jail. The problem is this. Should it be illegal for a government official to reveal the identity of an undercover CIA agent? Most reasonable people, including most reporters, would probably say yes. Lives can be at stake. But for all practical purposes, such a law, which in fact we...