John Kelly Secretly Listened to All of Trump’s Phone Calls As Chief of Staff, Reveals Jared Kushner

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Jared Kushner, former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and West Wing adviser, revealed in his upcoming memoir that John Kelly listened to all of Trump’s phone calls without his knowledge while serving as chief of staff.

Kushner, who has no love lost for Kelly who downgraded Kushner’s controversial security clearance, made the revelation in his book, Breaking History: A White House Memoir, which is slated to be released on August 23rd.

According to an excerpt published in the New York Post, Mick Mulvaney, who served as chief of staff after Kelly’s departure from the role in January 2019 informed Trump of Kelly’s practice of eavesdropping on his calls.

“Before we departed, Mulvaney and I met with the president to discuss his upcoming schedule. Then Mulvaney handed Trump a document to sign,” Kushner writes.

Mulvaney then told Trump “this will end the practice Kelly started of listening to all of your phone calls.”
Kushner adds that Mulvaney then “explain[ed] that Kelly had given himself the ability to listen surreptitiously to the president’s calls.”

“‘Kelly did what?’ the president asked, stunned at the invasion of privacy,” Kushner wrote, adding the revelation left Trump furious.

“End that immediately!” Trump said, according to Kushner.

In a separate excerpt published in July in the Washington Post, Kushner describes Kelly as a bully with a “Jekyll-and-Hyde” demeanor. The Post added that Kushner claims Kelly “once shoved his wife, Ivanka Trump, out of his way after a volatile Oval Office meeting. Kelly denies the allegation.”

Kelly, a former U.S. Marine Corps General, became Trump’s second chief of staff in July 2017 and was brought in to try and stabilize a tempestuous White House. He has emerged as a prominent critic of Trump and supported his immediate removal from office via the 25th Amendment following the pro-Trump attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.