As Crisis Grows, White House Eyes Big Shakeups

Hard-hitting campaign aides could be back as Trump lawyers up, goes on defense
By Polly Davis Doig,  Newser Staff
Posted May 28, 2017 10:29 AM CDT
As Crisis Grows, White House Eyes Big Shakeups
In this April 18, 2016 file photo, Corey Lewandowski, campaign manager for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, appears at a campaign stop at the First Niagara Center in Buffalo, NY.   (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

President Trump is back from his foreign tour and has no shortage of items on his to-do list: Chief among them is containing the Russia crisis, and the Washington Post is reporting that the White House is looking to create a "war room" to do so and fill it with people it calls "some of Trump’s more combative campaign aides." That could include Corey Lewandowski, David Bossie, and Sam Nunberg. The White House is also lawyering up, notes the Post, with longtime Trump lawyer Marc Kasowitz expected to advise the president on the Russia situation as early as Sunday. And as fallout over reported backchannels to Russia grows, Politico notes that the future is uncertain for one key aide: Son-in-law Jared Kushner. "The bottom line is they need fresh legs; they need more legs," a former political adviser to the Trump campaign tells the Post. "They’re in full-scale war, and they’re thinly staffed."

Kasowitz is expected to be bolstered by a legal team, as well as a crisis communications team, reports the AP. "They need to quarantine this stuff and put the investigations in a separate communications operation," a former Clinton White House counsel says. Citing two unnamed sources, CBS News reports that the White House has identified three people believed to be behind leaks who are soon to be out of a job. Meanwhile, Trump himself was playing defense on the leaks Sunday via Twitter: "It is my opinion that many of the leaks coming out of the White House are fabricated lies made up by the #FakeNews media." (More President Trump stories.)

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