President Donald Trump was warned that one of his longtime allies was running an old-fashioned shakedown scheme during last year’s post-election transition period, but he ignored that warning and kept him on.ABC News correspondent Jonathan Karl appeared Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” to discuss his newly released book, “Retribution: Donald Trump and the Campaign That Changed America,” which reveals new details on the incoming administration’s efforts to staff the government.”As you remember, there was a lot of talk during that transition about how much smoother it was going than Trump in 2016,” Karl said. “Susie Wiles has really locked things down, they’ve got a process, they’re making appointments much quicker. I really get behind the scenes in Mar-a-Lago and also, by the way, on a on a yacht that is just down the intercoastal waterway from Mar-a-Lago, where something that some of the Trump folks called the alternative transition was taking place, where they were pushing people like Matt Gaetz for attorney general, Kash Patel for FBI director, and having, you know, meetings just down the way from Mar-a-Lago and really setting the stage for some of what was going on.”Karl reported on infighting within the transition team as some insiders strongly objected to nominees like Kristi Noem and Sean Duffy – now, respectively, the Senate-confirmed secretaries of homeland security and transportation – and freelance efforts by some Trump advisers to promote their own favored candidates.”The battle between [Howard] Lutnick and [Scott] Bessent over treasury secretary, the battle over – by the way, Boris Epshteyn’s role as a Trump adviser,” Karl said. “I break a significant amount of news on that, including the memorandum that Trump’s lawyer, Dave Warrington, now, by the way, is the White House counsel. But he was the chief lawyer for the the campaign, wrote to Donald Trump saying that they had evidence that Epshteyn was was shaking down people who wanted jobs in the in the incoming Trump administration.”Epshteyn, who’s served as an adviser to all three of Trump’s presidential campaigns, has served as the president’s personal senior counsel since his second term began.”I reprint the conclusion of that memo, which is that Donald Trump should not have any contact whatsoever with Boris,” Karl added, “and if he does, it could result in either massive embarrassment or, worse, a legal action, and, you know, but Boris was frozen out for about two days.” – YouTube youtu.be
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