Quest to track down White House’s author of opinion piece stalls

WASHINGTON — Remember Anonymous?

A month ago, an unidentified Trump administration official set off a White House firestorm by claiming in a New York Times opinion piece to be part of a secret “resistance” force out to undermine parts of President Trump’s agenda.

The article brought cries of treason from Trump and a demand that the powers of the federal government be brought to bear to root out the disloyal officials.

And then ... not much happened.

The investigation, which existed more in name than practice, stalled. A move to clean house never occurred. The author’s identity is still a mystery.

Still, publication of the piece, along with a new Bob Woodward book painting a picture of a president whose impulses were being thwarted by his own staff, has had some lasting aftershocks.

The president, already besieged by leaks, has closed ranks around the Oval Office, growing far more suspicious of staff and trusting fewer West Wing personnel. That’s according to four White House officials and Republicans close to the White House who were not authorized to speak publicly.

The Sept. 5 publication of the opinion piece rocked Washington. The author, described only as a senior administration official, wrote that “Many Trump appointees have vowed to do what we can to preserve our democratic institutions while thwarting Mr. Trump’s more misguided impulses until he is out of office.”

The piece landed the same week as Woodward’s “Fear” and emphasized the new book’s themes: that Trump appeared unfit for office and some of his closest aides viewed themselves as a bulwark between his worst decisions and the American public.

Trump was incensed about the opinion piece, calling around to confidants to vent about the author, solicit guesses as to his or her identity, seethe that it appeared in the newspaper he loves to hate, and complain that a “deep state” within the administration was conspiring against him. At a rally that week in Montana, he called the author “an anonymous, gutless coward.”

“You look at this horrible thing that took place. Is it subversion, is it treason?” Trump bellowed. “It really is terrible.”

The Beltway guessing game seeped into the White House, as current and former staffers traded calls and texts trying to figure out who could have written the piece, some even asking reporters for clues. Trump ordered aides to unmask the writer, cited “national security” concerns to justify a possible Justice Department investigation and issued an extraordinary demand that the newspaper reveal the author.

But then, mirroring the very thesis of the piece, Trump’s requests to the government largely went ignored. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Jonathan Lemire and Catherine Lucey are Associated Press writers.