Trump brings in hedge fund manager Anthony Scaramucci as Communications Director


Developments on Day 183 of the Trump Administration:

See also Podcasts: Spicer Resigns as Trump Goes Into His Bunker

Trump Closes Ranks as Spicer Resigns

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer resigns, soon after Donald Trump closes ranks with the sudden appointment of hedge fund manager Anthony Scaramucci as Communications Director.

Spicer vehemently disagreed with Scaramucci’s appointment. He was asked by Trump to stay on, but expressed his belief Scaramucci’s hiring would add to confusion and uncertainty in the White House.

Trump named Scaramucci without consulting either his Chief of Staff Reince Priebus or chief strategist Steve Bannon. Both men have opposed the appointment of Scaramucci in the past, with Priebus blocking his designation in January as the White House’s Public Liaison Director.

Trump’s decision rested on conversations with his daughter Ivanka, son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, according to officials.

Mr. Kushner has grown increasingly critical of both Mr. Spicer and Mr. Priebus, whom he regards as party establishment figures who operate out of self-interest. He also supported Mr. Trump’s decision to supplant Marc E. Kasowitz as his lead attorney on matters pertaining to Russia, according to people familiar with the situation.

Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders takes over Spicer’s role.

Spicer had been serving as de facto Communications Director after the departure of Mike Dubke in May. He had made fewer public appearances, with Sanders taking over most briefings and the White House sharply reducing the number of on-camera encounters with the press.

But Scaramucci’s appointment is far more than a rebuff of Spicer, as Trump moves towards a showdown with Special Counsel Robert Mueller over the Trump-Russia inquiry.

On Wednesday, Trump tried to limit Mueller’s investigation with the declaration of a red line on any examination of his business and financial dealings and those of his family. He and his advisors are also putting out the line that Mueller and his team should be disqualified because of conflicts of interest, looking at the former clients of the 15 attorneys carrying out the inquiry.

On Thursday, it was reported that Trump is looking at pre-emptive pardons for him, his family, and his aides, a claim rejected by the White House yesterday.

But far from being deterred, Mueller is pressing ahead, according to sources. They said he is already looking at Trump’s financial records, possibly including the tax returns that Trump — as candidate and as President — has refused to release.

Mueller’s team have also requested all records pertaining to the June 2016 meeting convened by Donald Trump Jr. with three Kremlin-linked envoys to consider Russia’s provision of material damaging Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Kushner and campaign manager Paul Manafort also joined the discussion with lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, whose clients include Russia’s intelligence services; Russian-American lobbyist Rinat Akhmetshin; and Irakly Kaveladze, a representative of Trump associate and real estate billionaire Aras Alagarov.

Scaramucci immediately tried to build a communications fortress in his first appearance in his new role: “I think there’s been, at times, a disconnect between the way we see the President and how much we love the president and the way some of you perhaps see the President.”

Despite Trump’s historically low popularity rating in opinion polls, Scaramucci declared, “I certainly see the American people probably see the president the way I do….He has some of the best political instincts in history.”

Scaramucci made no reference to the Trump-Russia inquiry.


US Intell — Russian Ambassador Discussed Trump Campaign With Sessions

Russia’s Ambassador to Washington, Sergei Kislyak, was overheard by US intelligence agencies telling Moscow that he discussed campaign-related matters — including issues important to the Russians — with Jeff Sessions during the 2016 Presidential contest, according to “current and former US officials”.

An official confirmed that two conversations with Sessions, now Attorney General but then a US senator and key foreign policy advisor to Trump, Republican candidate Donald Trump, were intercepted. He said nothing was automatically inappropriate about the discussion but another official noted:

The question is whether he crossed the line and discussed classified information or talked about deals like lifting sanctions if the Russians were interested in investing in the US or had dirt on Secretary Clinton.

A former official said that the intelligence indicates that Sessions and Kislyak had “substantive” discussions on matters, including Trump’s positions on Russia-related issues and prospects for US-Russia relations in a Trump administration

Sessions failed to disclose the meetings with Kislyak at his confirmation hearing. He later acknowledged them but said that they were not about the campaign and that he only met Kislyak in his role of US senator.

On Wednesday, Trump said he was disappointed, despite the Attorney General’s compromised position over his role in the campaign and the meetings with Kislyak, that Sessions had recused himself in early March from overseeing the Trump-Russia investigation.

The conjunction of the Wednesday interview and Friday’s disclosures has led to speculation that the White House is briefing against Sessions, who has said that he will continue in his post.

One official said that Sessions provided “misleading” statements that are “contradicted by other evidence”.


Kushner Failed to Disclose More Than 70 Assets

Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner failed to disclose more than 70 financial holdings that he was required to declare when he joined the White House as an advisor.

Kushner filed a new disclosure with the assets, the 39th revision since his first form in March. He also omitted more than 100 calls or meetings with representatives from foreign countries on his national security questionnaire before revising it months later.

A separate document showed that Kushner’s wife and Trump’s daughter Ivanka was paid as much as $5 million from her outside businesses over an 84-day span this spring — about the she entered the White House as a senior advisor and pledged to distance herself from her private holdings.


Reporter Breaks White House Ban on Live Audio for Press Briefing

Reporter Ksenija Pavlovic has defied the White House’s restrictions on reporters carrying live audio or video of press briefings designated as only for later distribution.

Pavlovic, who covers the White House for her site Pavlovic Today, streamed Wednesday’s briefing by Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders with the Periscope application.

The Trump Administration has sharply restricted press briefings, which have run almost every weekday under its predecessors, amid Donald Trump’s war on some media outlets. Briefings are now intermittent and few are on a live basis.


Judge Refuses to Allow Defunding of “Sanctuary Cities”

A US district judge in California refuses to reinstate Donald Trump’s executive order cutting funding to “sanctuary cities” who allow residence for undocumented immigrants.

Judge William Orrick originally blocked the order in a preliminary injunction in April, ruling on lawsuits from the cities of San Francisco and Santa Clara.

In May, Attorney General Jeff Sessions instructed officials to follow a narrow interpretation of the executive order, with jurisdictions that did not match his definition blocked from grants by the Justice Department or the Department of Homeland Security.

Orrick said Sessions’s memo did not “impact my prior conclusions that the Counties have standing, that their claims against the Executive Order are ripe, and that they are likely to succeed on the merits of those claims”.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement acting Director Thomas Homan said on Tuesday that he plans to send additional resources and agents to sanctuary cities to crack down on undocumented immigrants.