Celebrities
Louis Dor
Mar 13, 2017
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Steve Bannon, Trump's chief strategist and former head of Breitbart News, is often thought to hold sway over White House policy - specifically regarding issues of immigration and race.
While his rhetoric is usually what turns heads online, a story about his jacuzzi is what is enrapturing social media at present.
A Washington Post investigation recently revealed that Bannon had lived at no fixed address for a number of months in the runup to and during Donald Trump's Presidential campaign.
In February 2013 he signed a lease application for a three-bedroom house on Opechee Drive in a Miami neighbourhood. He had told landlords he'd be splitting time between California and Florida with his wife, Diane Clohesy.
However, residents don't recall often seeing him at the property while he lived there.
In October 2013, Clohesy became part of an undercover investigation of a jail guard who was suspected of smuggling drugs to another man, her friend, in a detention centre.
Clohesy, who was eavesdropped on by investigators, was heard arranging a delivery of several ounces of marijuana and a cell phone to the inmate.
She was forced to cooperate and revealed she had maintained a relationship with the man. Her brother told the Washington Post that Bannon provided her with emotional and financial support in recovering from a drug addiction.
Neighbours told the post, she often had disruptive visitors. Excessive noise, cars speeding from the premises, a car crash and bright lights being shone into neighbours windows were all reported to the police.
In 2015, Bannon changed his voter registration to an address in Onaway Drive, Miami.
The Post reported that The Opechee house was left in disrepair, with padlocks placed on interior doors and some doors removed altogether.
According to an email between the landlord and Bannon and interviews with the landlord, there was also further damaage to the back yard:
[E]ntire Jacuzzi bathtub seems to have been covered in acid
Bannon reportedly replied to the landlord's email with: 'I’m out of town, is there any way u can talk with Diane and sort things out ???'
The Post add:
The damage was estimated at more than $14,000, according to an accounting by the landlords, who kept the $9,800 security deposit from Bannon and Clohesy.
Their real estate agent, Devin Kammerer, told the Washington Post:
I would not work with them after that.
I would not refer them again as clients of mine.
People on Twitter have been commenting about the Jacuzzi story - even a Washington Post reporter clocked it as the most concerning part of the story:
Others are making other concerning observations:
Others are drawing obvious parallels:
What a time to be alive.
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