Since we published photos provided by Colbie Holderness to back up her claim of spousal abuse by her former husband, White House aide Rob Porter, the administration has been engulfed by the scandal, with a flurry of accusations flying back and forth among White House officials shifting blame. John Kelly is now offering to resign as chief of staff for his handling of Rob Porter's spousal abuse allegations, the New York Times is reporting.
I'm told the list of possible replacements, if he goes, includes Kevin McCarthy, Mick Mulvaney, Mark Meadows and Chris Christie (highly unlikely). (If McCarthy got the job, Dems would likely win his California seat in the fall.)
In a follow-up story, Alleen Brown, Matt Cole and I detail the extent to which Porter, Kelly and those around him attempted to suppress the allegations, raising questions about whether laws were broken related to the handling of classified information.
And James Risen has another huge scoop for us, news of a secret backchannel between the U.S. and intelligence community to discuss the purchasing of purloined NSA documents -- as well as potential dirt on Trump.
U.S. SECRETLY NEGOTIATED WITH RUSSIANS TO BUY STOLEN NSA DOCUMENTS — AND THE RUSSIANS OFFERED TRUMP-RELATED MATERIAL, TOO
By James Risen
The U.S. intelligence community has been conducting a top-secret operation to recover stolen classified U.S. government documents from Russian operatives, according to sources familiar with the matter. The operation has also inadvertently yielded a cache of documents purporting to relate to Donald Trump and Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Over the past year, American intelligence officials have opened a secret communications channel with the Russian operatives, who have been seeking to sell both Trump-related materials and documents stolen from the National Security Agency and obtained by Russian intelligence, according to people involved and other documentary evidence. The channel started developing in early 2017, when American and Russian intermediaries began meeting in Germany. Eventually, a Russian intermediary, apparently representing some elements of the Russian intelligence community, agreed to a deal to sell stolen NSA documents back to the U.S. while also seeking to include Trump-related materials in the package.
FULL STORY
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