All posts tagged "alyssa farah griffin"

'Very sketchy': Ex-Trump aide says Pam Bondi gave a license to commit crime

The View's Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served in the first Trump administration, called the current Department of Justice explanation of the Jeffrey Epstein investigation, "very sketchy."

The Department of Justice released a memo this week "concluding that 'no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted' in the investigation" of the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender," according to The New York Times.

Furthermore, the memo concluded that Epstein, a former associate of Donald Trump's, died by suicide in his Manhattan cell in 2019, despite conspiracy theories claiming he was murdered.

At Tuesday's cabinet meeting, Attorney General Pam Bondi attempted to explain away the alleged "missing minute" of video footage "proving" Epstein committed suicide, saying, "What we learned from the Bureau of Prisons...every night the video is reset. Every night should have the same minute missing."

Griffin found the whole explanation to be suspicious.

"I don't feel like we should be advertising that the Bureau of Prisons has one minute that is not accounted for in federal prison every single night around 11:59," Griffin said. "It's basically saying if you want to do your crimes, you got one minute. Very sketchy."

Griffin mentioned investigative journalist Julie K. Brown, who pointed out that "there are massive inconsistencies in this story. She says the camera footage released by the Department of Justice — that's only one angle —that it does not...account for other angles, and talks about the fact he was given two mattresses and two blankets and allowed to sleep on the floor while no other inmates were at the time."

"I'm not someone who dabbles in conspiracy," Griffin continued. "This was a bad man who deserved justice, and [I] haven't liked the rubber-necking about who is going to be involved, but there does need to be justice, and you can't promise there is going to be and show up this empty-handed."

Angry MAGA supporters called for Bondi's resignation over her failure to produce more information on Epstein.

Watch the clip below via ABC's The View or click the link.

'This feels different': Conservative says new scandal knocked Trump off-kilter

Conservative writer Charlie Sykes claimed in a new article that President Donald Trump has been so unnerved by the Iran scandal fueled by his own administration's claims that he can focus on nothing else.

So far, only one of 17 intelligence agencies released reports on the possible effects of last weekend's bombing, yet the Trump administration continues to call it a raging success. When the press has questioned exactly how Trump knows Iran's nuclear capabilities have been wiped out, the president has been going ballistic.

At Wednesday's NATO summit press conference at The Hague, Trump claimed The New York Times, CNN, and MSNBC were out to disparage him and the brave men and women who defend the country.

"Trumpian rage rants are, of course, routine," Sykes wrote. "But Playbook suggests that this time feels different. 'The president posted 21 times on Truth Social yesterday about the supposed success of his military strikes. And at yesterday’s NATO summit — a moment specifically designed by the Western world for Trump to bask in the glory of a huge defense spending boost — he spent most of his public appearances repeating his assertions on Iran.'”

Sykes turned to Politico's reporting to find the reasoning behind Trump's "latest indignant frenzy."

"Critics see a president spooked by a bombshell leak that has undermined his authority," wrote Politico's Jack Blanchard and Dasha Burns.

"Supporters say Trump is genuinely outraged by what he claims is false reporting and wants the record corrected. Either way — he’s using every tool in his arsenal to push back hard: Witness the hammer-like repetition that sites were 'obliterated'; the plentiful use of surrogates like Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio; the vindictive targeting of the journalists and media organizations involved; the barrage of statements from both U.S. and Israeli intelligence chiefs yesterday that the initial report was wrong," the report states.

On CNN Thursday, former Trump official Alyssa Farah Griffin warned that the administration was making matters worse by fighting over how successful the campaign was when the full scope of the strikes still wasn't in.

Read the Charlie Sykes article here.

'Fool's errand': Ex-Trump aide warns Hegseth he is making latest scandal worse

Alyssa Farah Griffin, who served in the first Trump administration, had a warning to Defense secretary Pete Hegseth and other leaders to back off their attacks on the public for wanting more information on the Iran attacks.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed the U.S. "obliterated" the Iranian nuclear facilities in last weekend's bombings, despite a lack of evidence. Thursday, Hegseth gave what CNN anchor Sara Sidner called an "extraordinary" press conference, where he accused the media of "spinning" a preliminary report "to try to cause doubt and manipulate the...public mind, over whether or not our brave pilots were successful."

Griffin told CNN that Hegseth's press conference was performative in order to please Trump, who staged his own attack on the media at Wednesday's NATO summit.

"Hegseth knew who he was performing for," Griffin began. "His job was to attack the media and to defend this as the most successful operation."

Griffin then admonished the administration to slow down and not be so quick to claim absolute victory over the strikes until all of the intelligence reports are out, not just the one from the Defense Intelligence Agency.

"I would encourage the White House take a beat," Griffin said. "You're going to get more assessments. You're going to hear from the Israelis. The Europeans will very likely do their own assessments. We've heard from one of 17 intel agencies with this DIA report. Being almost overly argumentative and defensive is making it look like a bigger story than it needs to be, because all indications point to...this very likely set the Iranians back significantly.

"And I'd also remind folks, 79% of Americans believe that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon. So, attacking the public for wanting to have answers to questions about how successful this was is such a fool's errand. We actually just simply want to know, is the world safer today or is it not?"

Watch the clip below via CNN or click the link.

'Disgraceful': Ex-Trump staffer rips old boss' 'deeply inappropriate' cemetery appearance

A former staffer of Donald Trump's White House laid into her old boss's decision to film a TikTok video attacking her political opponent in a section of Arlington National Cemetery where campaign photos and videos are barred.

Trump's TikTok account posted a video showing him smiling and giving a thumbs-up in Section 60 of the cemetery as he attacked the Biden administration's handling of the Afghanistan exit. The section is reserved for military members who died after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Alyssa Farah Griffin told panelists on CNN's "NewsNight" on Wednesday night she did a number of events with former Vice President Mike Pence at the cemetery and noted there are processes and protocols that go into such visits.

"There are very strict rules of where you can be. You need certain permissions and photography is only allowed in certain places," she said.

Griffin noted there's a distinction with Trump's event, which she felt was a "campaign event."

"He is not the sitting president. It's not the sitting vice president. People were saying, 'Well other political figures have done events there.' He's doing it in a purely campaign capacity. It was deeply inappropriate. A professional team would've known that."

Griffin said she agreed that Trump ought to highlight criticism of President Joe Biden's handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the deaths of 13 military members at Abbey Gate. But she rebuked how Trump went about such criticism.

"There are so many ways to do that that is not disgraceful and disparaging to veterans, the way that this was handled," she concluded.

Steven Cheung, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, has said they were "granted access to have a photographer there" and shared a screenshot that said Trump was allowed to have an official photographer and videographer outside the main media pool.

Watch the clip below or at this link.

'Trump is desperate': Ex-GOP aide thinks a Vance-RFK swap is a real possibility

Former President Donald Trump has raised speculation he could try to swap out Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), plagued as he is by controversy for his comments about childless women, for conspiracy theorist and former independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his running mate — even though there is no clear legal mechanism that would allow him to do so.

Speaking to CNN on Tuesday evening, former Trump White House communications chief Alyssa Farah Griffin thinks this is entirely plausible.

"[Democratic strategist] Paul Begala was saying, Alyssa, that Trump would get rid of J.D. Vance, and ... [put] RFK Jr. on the ticket," said anchor Erin Burnett. "Can I just ask you, Alyssa, knowing Trump as you do ... at this point, do you think he would ever dump J.D. Vance?"

"Listen, I think that if Kamala Harris gets the post-convention bump we think, if she's successful in the debate, and she's ahead outside of the margin of error in enough swing states, I wouldn't rule anything out," said Griffin. "Donald Trump is desperate to win this. In some ways, his freedom is on the line, in light of this new court filing related to January 6. So I wouldn't rule it out."

ALSO READ: Cruelty is all the Republicans have left

Additionally, she continued, Trump "loves" RFK Jr." because he's a Kennedy.

"He loves the cachet of a Kennedy name. I think he would love the idea of a Trump-Kennedy ticket," she said.

Griffin hails from the centrist wing of the GOP. Every day, she said, Trump gives people like her "more and more permission to not vote for Republicans" as he surrounds himself with people like RFK Jr., Tulsi Gabbard and J.D. Vance, who on the fundamentals, "we just don't agree on, whether it's support for Ukraine, not having tariffs on imports, wanting to pass border security deals."

"So I think he's really doubling down to what is a minority within a minority of the GOP," Griffin added.

Watch the video below or at the link here.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

'Absolute dumpster fire': Ex-Trump aide scorches 'ranting and raving' news conference

Former President Donald Trump's bizarre press conference at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday was a desperate attempt to force the media's focus off Vice President Kamala Harris and back onto himself, argued former Trump administration communications official Alyssa Farah Griffin on CNN.

The problem is, she added, it wasn't the kind of attention that benefits him.

"We've seen Trump do this before, arrange a news conference when he doesn't like the way the news cycle is going," said anchor Kaitlan Collins. "But he is very clearly trying to get it back now from Harris, from her crowd sizes, from the momentum she's seeing. He was claiming there's only 1,500 people at her rally. It was closer to 15,000. What did you see in that press conference today?"

"I mean, it was an absolute dumpster fire of a press conference," said Griffin. "I don't know how you could frame it any other way."

ALSO READ: Why ‘vanilla’ Tim Walz is the ingredient to beat Trump: Dem lawmakers

"He does feel like the focus is not on him," Griffin agreed. "She's getting a lot of attention and he's kind of getting into 'I alone can fix it' mode. I don't think advisers would have told him that 90 minutes of ranting and raving and re-litigating the former election is a useful way to be campaigning, but he did what he's going to do. He had shouted some of his greatest hits."

As for why he has been oddly absent from the campaign trail lately, Griffin continued, "I think that there is something to the fact that the last time he was in a battleground state was in Georgia. He went after the popular governor and his wife. That's not helpful in a swing state. So I think advisers are thinking, maybe have him do these interviews with influencers, maybe have him call into Fox News, but figure out, until he can hone a message and have some level of discipline, having him out there actually isn't that helpful."

Watch the video below or at the link here.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Trump aide warns to take his argument about assassinating opponents 'extremely seriously'

Former President Donald Trump's attorney John Sauer appeared to suggest during oral arguments at the Supreme Court over presidential immunity, that under certain circumstances it could be considered an "official act" for the president to assassinate a political rival — an argument that echoes a claim he made before the Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

This shouldn't just be thought of as an extreme hypothetical, warned Trump's former White House communications official Alyssa Farah Griffin in a post on X. Rather, it's something that should be taken at face value.

"I was in the Oval Office with Trump when he said a WH staffer he believed leaked an embarrassing story about him should be executed," wrote Griffin. "We may want to take this line of argument from Trump’s attorney extremely seriously."

ALSO READ: ‘Fraudulent’: Trump tormentor Lincoln Project loses big money in cybertheft scheme

The former president and his close allies have frequently stirred up outrage for similar rhetoric in public. Most notably, Trump once suggested that Mark Milley, a retired general who served as his Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, should be put to death for going behind his back to negotiate with China in his final days in office.

The Supreme Court appeared divided at the hearing on whether Trump could be held immune from prosecution by special counsel Jack Smith for his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

There appeared to be a majority who agreed he wasn't universally immune, but plenty appeared to open the door to narrow the charges and the evidence that can be considered, by drawing a distinction between official acts and private acts and directing lower courts to review the finer points of the prosecution to only involve private acts — which could theoretically add months more delay to a case that is already facing difficulties in getting scheduled to move ahead before the election.

'Nod to the judge': Trump aide says ex-president just tried to 'sway' Judge Cannon

Donald Trump is purportedly using flattery to help pave the way to freedom.

On Thursday, former President Donald Trump played U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon's ardent defender, calling her "highly respected" after she came under criticism by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

"Deranged 'Special' Counsel Jack Smith, who has a long record of failure as a prosecutor, including a unanimous decision against him in the U.S. Supreme Court, should be sanctioned or censured for the way he is attacking a highly respected Judge, Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over his FAKE Documents Hoax case in Florida," the former president wrote in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social.

ALSO READ: 'Outlooks mediocre or worse': Trump Media investors warned off in alarming Forbes analysis

Smith's court filing earlier this week beat back Cannon's move to postpone a decision until a jury is impaneled to "rest on an unstated and fundamentally flawed legal premise."

Cannon has faced questions of favoritism after she has decided that Trump's motion for dismissal based on a widely panned theory that he had autonomy under the Presidential Records Act (PRA) holds or sinks after a trial begins, thereby nixing any chance for the government to seek remedies because it would create a double-jeopardy situation.

Trump, who is the Republican presumptive nominee in the upcoming election, is facing three dozen charges involving the mishandling of classified documents that he took with him from the White House to Mar-a-Lago and for obstruction the government's effort to recover them.

He has pleaded not guilty.

While appearing on CNN's "Out Front" Alyssa Farah Griffin, who's served as White House Communications Director under President Donald Trump, peeled back Trumpworld's curtain to say that his genuflecting is intentional.

"He wants to prejudice the public or his supporters against judges he doesn't like and he wants to make them favorable to the ones that he does [like]," she said. "But also it's a nod to the judge."

"I mean, it's very similar to one of his attorneys referring to Brett Kavanaugh when he's going to be ruling on immunity, saying Trump appointed him so we think he'll be with us."

In fact, Griffin said that it's a common move to cozy up to wishful allies.

"This is something that they do and kinda put out there publicly in hopes of swaying the judges in their favor," she said. "Now of course, judges should be unbiased; that shouldn't affect them — but that's what he's thinking and saying this."

Watch below or click the link here.

'Total blow to the brand': Ex-Trump aide on the former president's wealth woes

The Donald Trump brand has always been gilded in gold. But the former president's cash crunch of late is reportedly causing concern.

Former Donald Trump communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin appearing on CNN explained that Trump world is disconcerted in publicly being shown to struggle with paying the $464 million sum set by a New York judge as part of the trial that found he and The Trump Organization committed fraud for years.

"It's incredibly bad," she said. "This is a total blow to the brand of Trump; Trump is as much a brand as he is a businessman in some ways, even more so."

ALSO READ: Trump is exploiting, abusing, playing, bending and breaking the legal system

"Well, I think that's how he was able to get away with inflating his wealth, with being able to secure loans that were completely out of step with what his properties were actually valued at."

Griffin fears that the 45th president, who has all but solidified the GOP nomination, could end up being forced to compromise himself and the country for a quick money fix.

"What I'm worried about is this, when Donald Trump is backed into a corner, he gets reckless and he makes reckless decisions," she said. "This may very well move forward next week and they starts seizing properties taken away from him."

"Where's he going to turn?"

Griffin has conjured what some are also concerned about: that there's a possibility "he's going to look to foreign" entities.

"It could be adversaries that could be individuals within nations or adversaries to lend him money if he's not able to secure loans here," she said. "And I think that's a very real possibility that folks need to be thinking about in the broader context of this."

Watch below or click the link.