Yes, I laughed when I saw that too! It hardly could seem true or probable, given this twisted Administrations AND that Fox reporters could tell a truthful story.
The only possible(?) redeeming fact is that she worked with Shep Smith who will occasionally call out the T bs…and tell the story straight. 
But I am looking at the the glass half-full scenario.
Update on that staffer who was suspended for two weeks, which ends Thursday. She has requested whistleblower protections for raising the alarm about how Kushner gained his security clearance to work in the White House.
A White House security specialist is seeking official whistleblower protection from the federal government after raising concerns about “unwarranted security clearances" for administration officials, including Jared Kushner, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
The specialist, Tricia Newbold, filed the whistleblower complaint less than two weeks after she was suspended without pay for defying her supervisor, Carl Kline.
The complaint, which was obtained by NBC News, alleges Newbold raised concerns with Kline about a security clearance for an individual as early as July 2017. The complaint does not identify the person, but sources familiar with the situation told NBC News that it was Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and adviser.
In the complaint, Newbold says Kline "repeatedly mishandled security files and has approved unwarranted security clearances."
The complaint says that on July 18, 2017, Newbold emailed Kline about “potential derogatory information” related to the individual that could impact his security clearance. At the time, Kushner had interim security clearance and his FBI investigation was ongoing, according to sources familiar with the situation.
Newbold’s complaint explains that standard procedure would be to call in the employee and discuss the negative information, which in this case had already been deemed to be “credible." Newbold’s complaint alleges that Kline refused to do so and instead suggested he “was going to wait until the [FBI] investigation was completed.”
Newbold says in the complaint that she “questioned why we were treating this individual any differently than we would any other individual.” The complaint claims Kline then shut down the discussion saying, “he would not address this matter further.”
Newbold’s complaint says she raised concerns with Kline again on the same individual, identified by sources as Kushner, on Aug. 21, 2017. The complaint states that Kline “advised I should ‘watch myself.’"
Months later, Kline approved top-secret clearance for Kushner, overruling the determination by Newbold and one other career White House security specialist, according to two sources familiar with the situation.
The career staffers rejected Kushner’s top-secret application because of concerns about his foreign contacts that were detailed in his FBI background investigation, according to the two sources.
Doesn’t look good Kush. 
Head of FEMA resigns to spend more time with his family. 
Brock Long, who led the Federal Emergency Management Agency during 220 declared disasters since 2017, announced his resignation Wednesday.
In a statement, Long, 43, said "While this has been the opportunity of the lifetime, it is time for me to go home to my family — my beautiful wife and two incredible boys."
William “Brock” Long has led FEMA since June 2017. A former state emergency management director in Alabama, Long was faced with immediate challenges in the federal post, including hurricanes Harvey in Texas and Maria in Puerto Rico. FEMA’s response to Maria was widely criticized as slow and inadequate.
Long was also found by the Department Of Homeland Security’s inspector general to have improperly used government vehicles and resources to travel back to his North Carolina home.
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said of Long in a statement, “I appreciate his tireless dedication to FEMA and his commitment to fostering a culture of preparedness across the nation.”
Nielsen said Deputy Administrator Pete Gaynor will become acting FEMA administrator upon Long’s departure. It’s not clear how much longer Long will remain at his position.
Who’s coming in…
Bill Barr is still needing to be confirmed by Congress, but it seems like he will be made Attorney General. But his daughter and son-in-law are now being sent to jobs within the government. Both positions seem like they are in pretty key areas…FinCen (scrutinizes financial transactions and crimes) and White House Counsel’s office.
Mary Daly, Barr’s oldest daughter and the director of Opioid Enforcement and Prevention Efforts in the deputy attorney general’s office, is leaving for a position at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Treasury Department’s financial crimes unit, a Justice official said.
Tyler McGaughey, the husband of Barr’s youngest daughter, has been detailed from the powerful US attorney’s office in Alexandria, Virginia, to the White House counsel’s office, two officials said.
…
The moves were by choice and are not required under federal nepotism laws, but Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics, called them “a good idea” to “avoid the bad optics that could come from the appearance of them working for him.”
Barr confirmed and will be sworn in later today.
The Senate confirmed William P. Barr on Thursday for a second stint as attorney general, handing oversight of the Justice Department — and its ongoing investigation into links between Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and the Trump campaign — to a seasoned Republican legal hand known for his expansive view of presidential power.
Senators expressed hope that the installation of a conventional figure like Mr. Barr could return some stability to the Justice Department’s 115,000 employees, after two years of intense battering by President Trump and his allies in Congress. The president lost confidence in his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, early on and, after months of publicly scorning him for recusing himself from overseeing the Russia investigation, Mr. Trump installed Mr. Sessions’s chief of staff, Matthew G. Whitaker, as a temporary replacement in November.
“Steady leadership at a time we need steady leadership to give a morale boost to the Department of Justice,” Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and the Judiciary Committee chairman, said shortly before the vote. “Somebody who will be fair to the president, but also be fair to the rule of law and protect the integrity of the Department of Justice.”
But with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, believed to be finishing his work, Mr. Barr’s tenure is likely to be shaped by the same cross currents, and his decisions could have far-reaching consequences for Mr. Trump, the presidency and the department for years to come.
Part of the game here…appear to be following the rules, but with no intention of even doing so. Comes with the T territory…littered with grifters.
In his first 10 days in office, Trump signed an executive order that required all his political hires to sign a pledge. On its face, it’s straightforward and ironclad: When Trump officials leave government employment, they agree not to lobby the agencies they worked in for five years. They also can’t lobby anyone in the White House or political appointees across federal agencies for the duration of the Trump administration. And they can’t perform “lobbying activities,” or things that would help other lobbyists, including setting up meetings or providing background research. Violating the pledge exposes former officials to fines and extended or even permanent bans on lobbying.
But loopholes, some of them sizable, abound. At least 33 former Trump officials have found ways around the pledge. The most prominent is former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, who resigned in December after a series of ethics investigations. He announced Wednesday that he is joining a lobbying firm, Turnberry Solutions, which was started in 2017 by several former Trump campaign aides. Asked whether Zinke will register as a lobbyist, Turnberry partner Jason Osborne said, “He will if he has a client that he wants to lobby for.”
…Among the 33 former officials, at least 18 have recently registered as lobbyists. The rest work at firms in jobs that closely resemble federal lobbying. Almost all work on issues they oversaw or helped shape when they were in government. (Nearly 2,600 Trump officials signed the ethics pledge in 2017, according to the Office of Government Ethics. Twenty-five appointees did not sign the pledge. We used staffing lists compiled for ProPublica’s Trump Town, our exhaustive database of current political appointees, and found at least 350 people who have left the Trump administration. There are other former Trump officials who lobby at the state or local level.)
Glad they included Downey Magallanes, who, under the corrupt and disgraced Ryan Zinke, was responsible for drastically shrinking Bears Ears National Monument so BP could drill for oil on it. As soon as the ink was dry on that despicable act she resigned and went to work for BP as their “Senior Director of Federal Government Affairs” – everyone knows this means she’s a lobbyist, but (wink, wink) that’s OK since the word “lobbyist” isn’t actually in her title. She helped desecrate a national treasure and transfer millions of dollars of public resources (previously owned by you and me) to private coffers just so she could secure a lucrative corporate job. The shameful details are here.
P.S. @dragonfly9 – awesome catch – thank you for keeping us informed! And you’re so right when you say that part of Trump’s con is to “appear to be following the rules, but with no intention of even doing so.” When he made such a big deal about his “ethics pledge” shortly after taking office, we all knew it was a load of hogwash; nothing more than another of his reality-TV stunts and, surprise, surprise, here we are two years later with proof that we were right. 
P.P.S. Remarkable reporting by ProPublica! They nailed this – and must have spent a massive amount of time on the research. I’ll say it again – we are so fortunate to have a free and dedicated press – they are a vital pillar of our democracy. 
Never a surprise…and it would come down to Nauert having a Nanny who was not legally allowed to work and was not paying taxes. Hmm finding someone in your employment, who was working a ‘deal,’ with your family and more than likely an immigrant.
Heather Nauert was a spokesperson for Mike Pompeo but also a former Fox News Commentator did not pass into the committee hearings because she could not get vetted. And she was someone who spouted the Fox conspiracist BS…
Good riddance
State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Saturday she has withdrawn from consideration as UN ambassador.
President Donald Trump had previously announced he was picking Nauert, but the formal nomination had not been sent to the Senate.
…
Before she joined the State Department, Nauert employed a nanny who was in the United States legally but was not legally allowed to work, a source familiar with the matter and an administration official told CNN. The nanny wasn’t paying taxes while she worked, the sources said. This was not known when Nauert became the State Department spokeswoman, but she did tell officials when she was offered the United Nations ambassadorship, the sources said.
Nauert disclosed the nanny when she filled out the paperwork for the UN position,
Trump also announced Nauert as his pick December 7, before the White House did a thorough vet of her, sources told CNN. Nauert’s Office of Government Ethics paperwork hadn’t even gotten through review until well after Trump tweeted that he would nominate her.
She was uniquely unqualified.
FBI Departures
FBI Director James Comey
FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe
Senior Counterintelligence Agent Peter Strzok
FBI General Counsel Lisa Page
FBI General Counsel James Baker
Chief of Staff to Director Comey, James Rybicki
Assistant Director of Public Affairs at the FBI, Michael Kortan
Josh Campbell, a former special assistant to Comey
James Turgal, a former assistant director to the FBI
Michael Steinbach, the former head of the FBI’s national security division
John Giacalone, the former head of the FBI’s national security division, who proceeded Steinbach
Assistant Director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, Bill Priestap
Scott Smith, the Assistant FBI Director of the Cyber Division
Howard Marshall, the deputy Assistant FBI Director of the Cyber Division
David Resch, executive assistant director of the FBI’s criminal, cyber, response and services branch
Carl Ghattas, executive assistant director of the FBI’s national security branch
Sources:
It’s weird that the most comprehensive sources on this are from conservative outlets because they’re trying to prove some crackpot deep state conspiracy theory, when in fact they outline a gutting of the senior FBI by the Trump administration. Did I miss anyone? Add them below.
Trent Teyema, chief of cyber readiness and cyber division chief operating officer at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has left the FBI for a role in the private sector.
From an article (2018) on FBI losing it’s top tier talent
(Who The Fuck Has Left The Trump Administration)
Also considering that the FBI was deeply affected and jostled during the 35-day shutdown, it would not surprise me, that perhaps job security is more in line for these departures.
Close to 20 top FBI cybersecurity leaders have left for high-paying corporate jobs over the past five years, one former veteran agent told POLITICO — a dramatic turnover in a handful of senior jobs. And news of the most recent retirements followed the abrupt departure of the co-head of the FBI’s newly formed election meddling task force.
The exodus — including departures from the FBI’s Cyber Division — worries current and former bureau officials. It’s also prompting concern from several top congressional Democrats, who asked their committees’ chairmen last week to get assurances from FBI Director Christopher Wray “that the agency has a plan to replace the departing staff, and that the safety of our elections will not suffer in the interim.”
The bureau has spent years losing highly trained specialists to the private sector, where salaries and benefits for senior cyber leaders can easily top $300,000, far above the government’s pay scale. But the recent decline in experienced cyber leaders comes as the country’s top law enforcement and intelligence officers warn that the nation’s critical infrastructure is under daily assault from hackers. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said last month that “the warning lights are blinking red” as “the digital infrastructure that serves this country is literally under attack.”
Investigators will feel ripple effects from the departures as the former leaders are replaced with people who lack their institutional memory and credibility. “This type of change, if not properly managed, is highly disruptive,” said Leo Taddeo, who served in the bureau for 20 years and once led cyber operations at the FBI’s New York office.
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is expected to leave the Justice Department in mid-March, according to a Justice Department official who spoke to CNN Monday.
The official disputed the idea that the timing of Rosenstein’s departure has anything to do with the latest revelations from former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, emphasizing that the plan was always that Rosenstein would help with the transition for his successor and then leave.
CNN has previously reported that Rosenstein was planning to leave his post after Barr was confirmed.
The new deputy attorney general could be announced as early as this week. As CNN has reported, Attorney General Bill Barr has selected Jeffrey Rosen as his deputy.
Same thing happened to McCabe, new boss appointed, deputy steps aside. Sort of a back-door firing… Trump has learned to clean house this way. That’s why the executive is such a disordered mess.
From McCabe’s new book, The Threat. He details the moments of when FBI Director Wray asks him to step down.
White House deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters, who regularly defended the administration’s economic policies, plans to leave in April to work for Edelman Public Relations.
Walters is the only White House spokesman besides Press Secretary Sarah Sanders to remain on the job since the first day of Donald Trump’s presidency. She joined the White House staff after working with former press secretary Sean Spicer at the Republican National Committee and concentrated on economic issues, including the 2017 tax overhaul and trade negotiations with China.
Walters said it was “time for a change” and that she was excited by the opportunity at Edelman. “It has been an honor and a privilege to serve the president in this administration,” Walters said in a statement.
New Rumor! People are worried Trump might fire Dan Coats?
President Trump has grown increasingly disenchanted with Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats, who has served as the nation’s top intelligence official for nearly two years, leading some administration officials to worry he will soon be dismissed, according to people familiar with the matter.
The president has never seen Coats as a close or trusted adviser, the people said, but he has become more frustrated with him in recent weeks over public statements that Trump sees as undercutting his policy goals, particularly with respect to reaching a disarmament agreement with North Korea.
The people familiar with the matter, who like others interviewed for this report spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, did not believe that Coats would be fired immediately but said that Trump is considering removing him. They also noted that Trump sometimes grows angry with officials but stops short of dismissing them.
Trump is still “enraged” about Coats’s congressional testimony on national security threats last month, believing that the director undercut the president’s authority when he shared intelligence assessments about Iran, North Korea and the Islamic State that are at odds with many of Trump’s public statements, said one adviser who spoke with the president over the weekend.
This is a must read!!!
Deep dive into the early days of Trump’s NSC.
A former NSC staffer came back during the first few months of the Trump administration for another person’s farewell party. When he asked people how they were, at least six individuals declined to say anything in front of others. Instead, each pulled him to a corner near a window. Of the Trump appointees, they would say, “‘These people are incompetent. They literally don’t know what they’re doing, and they don’t care to know what they’re doing,’” the person recalled, saying the despondent staffers would add, “‘I don’t know why I’m doing this. Nobody listens to professional advice.’”
(…)
Among NSC watchers, there’s a sense of relief that no major national security crisis occurred during those first several hectic weeks. The question now, many say, is whether America’s foreign policy machine under Bolton is functional enough to handle a major surprise.
“If you don’t have process, then when a crisis happens you’re not going to be able to pull the right people together for a coherent response,” said Ivo Daalder, a former U.S. ambassador to NATO who now leads the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. “And in this administration, all the crises that we’ve had so far have been self-inflicted. We haven’t had one from the outside.”
At the time, in 1993, the Princeton professor was taking a break from academia to direct scientific research at the U.S. Department of Energy. He turned a skeptical eye toward one of then-Vice President Al Gore’s favorite issues: the risks posed by chemicals eating away at ozone in the stratosphere and letting in dangerous ultraviolet radiation. As the story goes, Happer went to the White House and told Gore’s staff he saw no evidence that the ozone hole actually was hurting anyone.
Gore was annoyed, and Happer lost his job.
(…)
Bender says he wouldn’t do it now, though. It’s partly because of the scientific dispute, because he thinks Happer is misreading the evidence. But it’s also because of Happer’s style — he’s labeled climate science a cult and accused other scientists of whipping up climate fears to boost their own careers. Most offensive for Bender: Happer once said the "demonization of carbon dioxide is just like the demonization of the Jews under Hitler."
If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Good advice and it looks like Whitaker is taking it. Maybe he’ll surface somewhere on Turks and Caicos.
Former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker has left the Department of Justice.
A Justice Department spokesman told The Hill that Whitaker’s last day was Saturday but did not expand on the circumstances surrounding his departure or his plans after leaving. It is unclear where Whitaker might go, including whether he might seek another role in the Trump administration. …
Whitaker’s departure comes less than three weeks after William Barr was confirmed as Trump’s next attorney general. Barr was widely expected to bring new blood to top leadership roles in the department, raising questions about Whitaker’s tenure.
Since Whitaker’s testimony, The New York Times reported that Trump at one point asked Whitaker whether the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman could be put in charge of an investigation there related to campaign finance violations stemming from a scheme to pay off women who alleged affairs with Trump before the 2016 election. Trump has denied doing so and the Justice Department said Whitaker stood by his testimony.
