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Did Obama Aide Valerie Jarrett Move in with the Obamas to 'Mastermind' an Anti-Trump Insurgency?

Web sites are citing a tabloid claim that Valerie Jarrett, a friend and close adviser to the Obamas, is sharing their home as part of a plot to oust President Trump from office.

Published March 2, 2017

 (Wikimedia commons)
Image Via Wikimedia commons

On 1 March 2017, the British tabloid The Daily Mail published a article reporting that Valerie Jarrett, a close friend and adviser to former First Couple Barack and Michelle Obama, had moved in with the Obama to help "mastermind" the 44th President's "crusade" to oust sitting President Donald Trump:

Barack Obama is turning his new home in the posh Kalorama section of the nation's capital — just two miles away from the White House — into the nerve center of the mounting insurgency against his successor, President Donald J. Trump.

Obama's goal, according to a close family friend, is to oust Trump from the presidency either by forcing his resignation or through his impeachment.

And Obama is being aided in his political crusade by his longtime consigliere, Valerie Jarrett, who has moved into the 8,200-square-foot, $5.3-million Kaloroma mansion with the former president and Michelle Obama, long time best friends.

Although the Daily Mail's article cited nothing more than an unverifiable "source" for all that it reported, numerous new outlets including the Daily Caller, Fox News, Newsmax, and Hollywood Life picked up the story, citing in turn only the tabloid.

The report played heavily on suspicions propagated by conspiracy theory web sites such as InfoWars that Barack Obama is directing an "army" of protesters from his home (a "shadow White House" located in the Kaloroma neighborhood of Washington, D.C.), dispatching minions to crowd demonstrations and town hall meetings ever since President Trump took office.

Kevin Lewis, Barack Obama's post-presidency spokesman, called the story "absurd" and devoid of facts, stating to us that Jarrett was neither moving in with the Obamas nor launching a political movement intended to oust President Trump from office.

It's unclear what the former president's post-White House level of political involvement might be, but he has made comments suggesting he will be involved with the nation's political scene in some way. His former Attorney General, Eric Holder, told reporters that Barack Obama is "ready to roll" with the newly-formed National Democratic Redistricting Committee, an organization Holder chairs, to address what they term a "massive structural disadvantage" Democrats currently experience in Congress due to electoral district gerrymandering.

Bethania Palma is a journalist from the Los Angeles area who has been working in the news industry since 2006.