SHADOW CHIEF OF STAFF

Trump Ordered NatSec Adviser to Hunt ‘Leaker’ Based on ‘Very Trusted Source’ Hannity

After the Fox News host called him up with a tip based on an alt-right pundit’s claims, Trump demanded McMaster punish a leaker based on his “very trusted source.”

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman’s much-anticipated book on Donald Trump’s White House tenure has already made an impact, even though it doesn’t hit shelves until next week. Multiple news outlets, including The Daily Beast, have obtained excerpts revealing Trump’s behavior was even more unhinged than previously known. In his Wednesday night newsletter, CNN’s Oliver Darcy unveiled another explosive bit that drives home just how much of an influence Fox News star Sean Hannity had on the ex-president. According to Haberman’s book, Hannity—long described as Trump’s “shadow chief of staff”—called the president “to share a rumor spreading online” started by a prominent alt-right social-media figure blaming a leak to The Washington Post on Fernando Cutz, a senior adviser to then-National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster. Trump quickly told McMaster that he had “three hours to find the leaker,” prompting the national security adviser to say “he would be unable to identify the person responsible in that time frame.” Even though Haberman noted that it was impossible for Cutz to be the leaker, she wrote that Trump insisted to McMaster that he was indeed the culprit. “I have a very trusted source telling me that,” the former president said, referencing Hannity.

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Justin BaragonaSenior Media Reporter

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