White House accused of burying bad news under cover of storm

THE White House was last night accused of “using the cover of a hurricane” to release a slew of controversial announcements.

As a potentially catastrophic storm made landfall, Donald Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio, America’s “toughest sheriff ”, high-profile British-born adviser Sebastian Gorka left the administration, and the president officially signed his ban on transgender people in the military. A row then erupted over Mr Gorka’s departure, as the former deputy assistant to the president claimed he had resigned, while a senior White House official said: “Sebastian Gorka did not resign, but I can confirm he no longer works at the White House.”

Mr Gorka, who previously worked at the news website Breitbart, had caused discord within the administration by espousing hard-line views on national security in numerous media appear- ances. He released a “resignation letter” in which he wrote: “It is clear to me that forces that do not support the ‘Make America Great Again’ promise are, for now, ascendant within the White House.”

Mr Gorka also criticised Mr Trump’s recent speech on Afghanistan, calling the prospect of future US actions there “worrying”.

His departure had been widely expected following that of Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strate- gist, who recently returned to his previous role running Breitbart. The pardoning of Mr Arpaio, the Arizona sheriff, was the first of Mr Trump’s presidency and led to a fierce backlash.

Mr Arpaio became a nationally controversial figure after introducing immigration patrols that focused on Hispanic people. Last month he was convicted of contempt of court in a case, brought by the Justice Department, relating to racial profiling. He was to be sentenced in October.