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A UK hacker reportedly fooled top White House officials into engaging in fake email exchanges.
The self-proclaimed "email prankster" convinced a senior cyber security adviser he was the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, CNN says.
He also goaded the then media chief, Anthony Scaramucci, in the guise of ex-chief of staff Reince Priebus.
Concerns about cyber security are running high amid claims hackers interfered in the US election.
The White House told CNN it was investigating the latest incident and took the issue very seriously.
The prankster posted some of the email exchanges on Twitter, where he describes himself as a "lazy anarchist", and said he was doing it for fun. On Tuesday he promised not to target the White House again, but said "you need to tighten up IT policy".
Here are three of the most memorable parts of the hoax:

Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert was apparently tricked into believing Mr Kushner had invited him to a party and gave out his personal email address unsolicited.
"Tom, we are arranging a bit of a soirée towards the end of August," the fake Mr Kushner wrote in emails shared with CNN. "It would be great if you could make it, I promise food of at least comparible [sic] quality to that which we ate in Iraq. Should be a great evening."
Mr Bossert replied: "Thanks, Jared. With a promise like that, I can't refuse. Also, if you ever need it, my personal email is [redacted]."
A day after Mr Priebus was removed as White House chief of staff, the hacker emailed then-White House media chief Mr Scaramucci pretending to be his adversary.
The fake Mr Priebus accused Mr Scaramucci of being "breathtakingly hypocritical" and acting in a way not "even remotely classy".
Mr Scaramucci, appointed communications director a week earlier, had accused Mr Priebus - a Republican Party stalwart - of leaking to the press. He also phoned a reporter to unleash a profanity-filled rant against Mr Priebus, whom he called a "paranoid schizophrenic".
Tricked by the fake emails on Saturday, the real Mr Scaramucci said: "You know what you did. We all do. Even today. But rest assured we were prepared. A Man would apologize."
When the pretend Mr Priebus wrote back defending his work, Mr Scaramucci responded: "Read Shakespeare. Particularly Othello."
Eric Trump, too, was briefly hoodwinked by the prankster emailing as his older brother, Donald Trump Jr, about a long-range hunting rifle.
But Donald Jr soon realised it was a scam and replied: "I have sent this to law enforcement who will handle from here."

From Capitol Hill to the White House, the GOP seems perpetually in fear. When Republicans see their shadows, they leap like terrified Cheshire cats into the chandeliers. They need the courage, rather than the cowardice, of their convictions.

“Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others.”

Several conspiracy stories circulated after Rich's death that sought to draw a link to Rich's work at the DNC and the email controversy that dominated the 2016 presidential campaign, including that Rich intended to deliver incriminating emails about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to Wikileaks.

No evidence has ever surfaced to back up that theory, or to suggest Rich had any inside knowledge of the hacking of the DNC emails. The intelligence community later concluded that Russia had hacked the DNC in order to effect the election.

Rich's family was reportedly unhappy with Wheeler's statements to the media that suggested a connection between Rich and Wikileaks.

"The family has relayed their deep disappointment with Rod Wheeler's conduct over the last 48 hours, and is exploring legal avenues to the family," a spokesperson for Seth Rich's family told Fox 5.

Wheeler's lawsuit names Fox on-air guest Ed Butowsky and reporter Malia Zimmerman, saying they "fabricated two quotations and attributed them to Mr. Wheeler."

Butowsky, a wealth manager and Trump supporter, periodically appears on the network as a guest to provide financial analysis. Zimmerman is a Fox News investigative reporter.

The lawsuit cites a text message from Butowsky to Wheeler that states the president "wants the article out immediately."

"Not to add any more pressure but the president just read the article. He wants the article out immediately. It's now all up to you. But don't feel the pressure," the text of the message in the lawsuit reads.

The lawsuit argues that Trump wanted the story because it established that Seth Rich provided WikiLeaks with the DNC emails, which would shift the blame from Russia.

"[Wheeler] was subsequently forced to correct the false record, and, as a result, lost all credibility in the eyes of the public," the lawsuit states.

Wheeler, a Fox News contributor, seeks damages for mental anguish and emotional distress and lost earnings at his private investigation firm.

Top 6 Falsehoods Embraced by new WH Chief of Staff John Kelly
by Juan Cole

John Kelly will get a lot of good will from having fired the foul-mouthed Anthony Scaramucci. But should he? At least Scaramucci had been gunning for Steve Bannon, the scary far, far right wing white nationalist who serves as White House strategist. You have a sense that while Kelly is just very, very conservative, there are lots of things about Bannon he is comfortable with. That isn’t a comforting thought.

1. Kelly thinks we are under siege:

“We are under attack from failed states, cyber-terrorists, vicious smugglers, and sadistic radicals. And we are under attack every single day. The threats are relentless.”

As Michael Cohen wrote in response at the Boston Globe, “Cyber-terrorists have never killed an American citizen, no failed state threatens America and more Americans are killed by lightning strikes than sadistic radicals.”

2. Kelly said that construction on Trump’s border wall would begin by the end of this summer. It won’t.

3. Nor is the wall needed or wanted by a majority of Americans. Kelly is almost delusional about US immigration enforcement: “Nothing’s been done in the past eight years to to enforce the border rules and regulations, not to mention many of the immigration laws inside of the United States…”

Fact: The Obama administration deported at least as many people as the Bush administration had, if you use the same definition for deportations in both administrations. By sheer reported numbers, Obama deported some 2.5 million people during his 8 years while Bush deported 2 million. They probably actually deported about the same number. Kelly’s bizarre notion that the laws were not implemented since 2009 is flat wrong.

4. Kelly wanted to prioritize deportation of undocumented people who use marijuana on the circa 1910 grounds that it is a “gateway drug.” It is not, or Colorado would be nothing but heroin addicts. Legalization of marijuana tracks with lower crime rates.

5. Kelly said of reports that Jared Kushner had met with the Russians during the campaign, before these reports were confirmed, that “any channel of communication” with Russia “is a good thing.” .

6. Not to mention Kelly’s bizarre performance during Trump’s first attempt at a Muslim ban, when he gladly acted without any regard to the US constitution and claimed to have authored the policy (Bannon and Miller sprang it on him). The most dangerous thing of all is that Kelly is a good soldier and will do as he is told by Trump.

A top Environmental Protection Agency official resigned Tuesday in protest of the direction the EPA has taken under President Trump.

Elizabeth "Betsy" Southerland ended her 30-year run at the agency with a scathing exit letter in which she claimed that “the environmental field is suffering from the temporary triumph of myth over truth.” She last worked as the director of science and technology in the Office of Water.

“The truth is there is NO war on coal, there is NO economic crisis caused by environmental protection, and climate change IS caused by man’s activities,” Southerland wrote, directly rejecting many of Trump’s claims.

Southerland said that since EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt took over the agency, dozens of regulations designed to protect the environment had been repealed, and Trump’s proposed budget cuts to the agency would devastate its ability to enforce existing protections and create new ones.

Michael Beschloss‏Verified account @BeschlossDC 59m59 minutes ago
White House State Dining Room's fireplace is inscribed with John Adams's wish--“May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof”:

Bill Kristol‏Verified account @BillKristol 13h13 hours ago
We're used to spin, exaggeration, muddying waters, misdirection. But the flat-out lying by Trump & on his behalf takes some getting used to.

This is the theory of bark matter

The rumor is...

Her office championed the arbitrary extension of the "Waters of the United States" term on the Clean Water Act - a term that has always meant the navigable rivers and streams of the country, to include water storage ponds in farms and ranches, and even temporary puddles resulting from regrading at construction sites.

The result being effective ownership of the property by an EPA

construction puddle

Boy Scouts 'unaware' of call Trump said he received praising speech

President Donald Trump told the Wall Street Journal that after his controversial speech at the Boy Scouts National Jamboree in West Virginia, the head of the Boy Scouts called him and told him it was the greatest speech that was ever made to them. But the organization told TIME they are unaware of any call from national leadership placed to the White House.

“The Chief Scout Executive’s message to the Scouting community speaks for itself,” the organization said, referring to a July 27 statement from Michael Surbaugh, the Chief Scout Executive for the Boy Scouts of America, who apologized to anyone in the scouting community who could have been offended or alarmed by the political rhetoric in the speech.

get sirius