We now seem to have the first really tangential details on what was behind the White House crasher story. The Post has it — and the gist is that, for reasons that are not at all clear, the Salahis had exchanged several emails Michele Jones, a recently retired, highly decorated Sergeant Major in the Army who is now a Special Assistant to the Secretary of Defense, asking for Jones help swinging an invite to the State Dinner.
The story is complicated, to put it mildly, by the fact that none of the principals are talking. And from what I can tell, the Post didn’t get access to the emails but only has the accounts of sources who are familiar with them. But the upshot seems to be that the Salahis were importuning Jones for tickets/invitations; Jones said she was trying to get them and may have tried; but she never got them and seems never to have told the Salahis she did (though the Post piece seems a touch ambiguous on this last point). This in turn supposedly gave “the Salahis the confidence to get dressed up, mingle with some of the most powerful Washington players and post snapshots of their presence at the party on their Facebook page.”
As I said above, the details seem very sketchy. And Jones’ reason for giving the Salahis whatever help she did are not clear. But knowing what we do of the Salahis background it reads like a case of a couple of serial manipulators, with a high-end grifter’s usual pack of tricks, luring someone into their latest scam or con. The story the Salahis now seem to be peddling is that if they didn’t have a proper invite, Jones had led them to believe they did. But somehow I find it really tough to believe that Jones is the one who fooled the innocent Salahis that they really were invited.
Of course, this leaves unresolved the pressing question, which is just how these two made their way into the White House at all.
