The White House
President Trump Visits White House Ballroom Construction
Streamed live 55 minutes ago 21,017 views 46:55
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdZNUhGnEEs
Seth Keshel @RealSKeshel
POTUS just recommended my book - which reached #1 bestseller in three categories upon release.
Thanks for your support!
9:04 AM · May 19, 2026·2,601 Views
https://x.com/i/status/2056722684151730368
The Ballot Factory: Dirty Rolls Create the Inventory, Junk-Mail Ballots Flood the Streets, and the Harvesting Crews Finish the Job
Posted on May 19, 2026 by Capt. Seth Keshel >>24622389
One of the most surreal experiences for me over the course of my journey in the trenches of America’s election integrity battle was my first visit to brief members of White House staff:
On July 21, 2021, I gave my first official in-person election integrity event to the public in Flora, Mississippi. It was not as smooth or rehearsed as my later briefings have been since I was still finding my sea legs, but a couple hundred people showed up to something that would come to turn my life upside down and send me on the road trip of a lifetime.
…For over three years, all the way up to the 2024 election, people lined up to receive information on the 2020 race. Over 60% of Americans grew to lack confidence that Biden’s election was won under fair terms. The information war demanded those with a knowledge of our election systems, equipped with evidence, take the case to the court of public opinion – so we went.
In the meeting, and ensuing meetings, one of the senior members who was present made the following point:
I agree the numbers suggest something is going on with our elections. But HOW are these ballots being collected? What is the mechanism?
I’ve spent a lot of time since then seeking to fill in the gaps and transform what I had to say from theory to documented fact. I already knew about the Biden DOJ going after Democrat election fraud in New Jersey and Connecticut primaries, which I wrote about in this newsletter and in The American War on Election Corruption (Chapter 4). It was clear, in reading the government’s investigation, that registration is the key to attaching bad ballots, and those seeking to undermine our elections know how to take advantage of the database and artificially ensure those “low propensity” voters (or fake registrations) wind up with a ballot turned in:
The foundation of the fraud, as I’ve said for years, is found in the voter roll. Without a voter roll, with voters forced to come in and present an ID, or meet strict requirements for receiving an absentee ballot, the only avenue of manual fraud available would be the Boss Tweed way of sending people to a voting center claiming to be someone they aren’t with a fraudulent ID card. That would require felonious participation from far more people who would be willing to spend time in the clink.
I also wrote last year about how easy it is to organize a posse to collect ballots in an urban environment, using Orange County, California, as my example:
I have surmised that 1,300 paid ballot harvesters in Orange County could collect 100,000 ballots (77 each) at a cost of $3,000,000 (three million). The Harris campaign, in less than four months, raised $1.2 billion in campaign funds, or 400 times more money than I’ve parceled out here for a county that makes up nearly 1% of the population of the United States, and while being overly generous in my price paid per ballot.
Now, more vital information has made its way to the front of the line thanks to the efforts of resilient Washington state patriots. Bill Bruch, a top-notch election integrity warrior who has earned my trust over the past five years, broke the news in his newsletter, “All Things Politics,” when he pulled back the curtain on obvious cheating in King County, Washington:
OVERVIEW: ABANDONED BOX OF ELECTION MATERIALS
April 16, 2026, WAGOP State Chairman and State Rep. Jim Walsh reported that a concerned citizen made a troubling discovery in February 2026: hundreds of undelivered WA State King County 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 ballots sitting in a large box on the ground, next to a dumpster behind a strip mall in Renton, WA. According to Chair Walsh, the Good Samaritan knew they were important, put the box in his truck, called King County Elections, then called the WA Secretary of State’s office (SoS), but was given the runaround. He even tried calling his congressional representative with no luck. So, he contacted Chair Walsh and gave the box to WAGOP.
Hundreds of ballots and a load of election materials were recovered, which linked four election cycles (2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025), all undeliverable yet cast aside for anyone to pick up. Why did King County give this man the runaround? Because they know good and well they run fraudulent elections. Remember the curious case of Jami Visaya in 2024?
https://floppingaces.net/most-wanted/the-ballot-factory-dirty-rolls-create-the-inventory-junk-mail-ballots-flood-the-streets-and-the-harvesting-crews-finish-the-job/
Promethean In-Depth
Strategic Overview - Trump and Xi: How History Unfolds
In this Promethean Action strategic overview (May 18, 2026), host Tony Papert and Bruce Director argue that mainstream and social-media narratives have inverted the real dynamics of the past week. Director says the Trump–Xi summit was misread because its central achievement was strengthening a direct leader-to-leader relationship, rejecting academic “rules” like the debunked “Thucydides Trap,” and signaling a new great-power approach also involving Putin. He then disputes claims that Iran holds the leverage, citing mediation through regional leaders and Trump’s announcement that a planned U.S. strike was paused while serious negotiations proceed, conditioned on “no nuclear weapons for Iran.” Director also contrasts media pessimism with signs of industrial and defense-sector job growth and innovation despite high fuel and grocery costs. Finally, he highlights legal rulings, redistricting shifts, recent primary upsets, the Los Angeles mayor’s race, and escalating DOJ scrutiny of Russiagate as improving Republican midterm prospects.
00:00 Welcome and Setup
00:55 Tonight’s Four Themes
03:31 Trump Xi Summit Reality
06:05 Debunking Thucydides Trap
09:51 Leadership and China Takeaways
13:03 Secret Garden Clip Breakdown
19:03 Iran War Leverage Shift
22:23 Trump Pauses Iran Strike
26:34 Economy Signals vs Media
29:49 Midterms and Redistricting
33:54 Russiagate Probe Escalates
35:03 Wrap Up and Discussion
2 hours ago May 19, 2026 2,213 views 35:40
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE2FIz8oxdw
NPR Cuts Newsroom Jobs Due to Federal Funding Loss, Expected Drop in Sponsorship Revenue
The job cut announcement comes after Trump ordered a halt to taxpayer subsidies for public broadcasters amid allegations of bias.
National Public Radio (NPR) is cutting newsroom positions and restructuring its editorial operations as the public broadcaster adjusts to reduced federal support after President Donald Trump’s order to end taxpayer funding for NPR and PBS over what he said was biased news coverage.
NPR CEO Katherine Maher was cited in a May 18 NPR report as saying the organization faces an $8 million budget gap, largely due to the elimination of federal subsidies. These subsidies had supported member stations, which in turn pay programming fees to NPR to carry various flagship shows, contributing to its annual operating budget of about $300 million.
Maher said NPR expects to receive roughly $15 million less in station fees this year while also anticipating softer corporate sponsorship revenue. She added that a previous 10-percent staffing cut ordered by her predecessor focused on supporting roles such as legal, but that the current budget crunch means the newsroom now faces the axe.
“We have made every effort to preserve the core capacity and strengths of what makes NPR different and distinct,” Maher said. “This is never an easy choice to make, to have to cut anywhere near the newsroom.”
The network is offering voluntary buyouts to about 300 employees, primarily in newsroom reporting and editing roles. NPR executives cited in the report said they expect the actual number of departures to be significantly smaller, with the organization aiming for about 30 buyouts. If too few employees accept the offers by May 26, there could be targeted layoffs.
NPR currently has 425 newsroom employees, according to editor-in-chief Thomas Evans, who said that the cuts are deeper than he would wish.
“We have to change this organization. We have to think about this audience. We have to think about how they are consuming us,” Evans said, remarking on the challenges of a changing media environment, which includes declining advertising revenue and audience fragmentation.
“More quality over quantity. Less content for the sake of content. I want to focus our newsroom on ‘capital-J journalism.’”
The cuts come on the heels of Trump’s May 1 executive order directing the halt of direct and indirect federal funding for NPR and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), which the president accused of promoting “biased and partisan news coverage.”
Federal Funding Cuts
Trump’s order instructed federal agencies to identify and terminate funding arrangements with NPR and PBS wherever legally possible.
“Americans have the right to expect that if their tax dollars fund public broadcasting at all, they fund only fair, accurate, unbiased, and nonpartisan news coverage,” Trump said in the order. “No media outlet has a constitutional right to taxpayer subsidies.”
Although NPR receives only about 1 percent of its budget directly from federal sources, the network depends heavily on fees paid by more than 240 member stations, many of which rely on federal funding to operate.
Maher said donor support following Congress’s decision last year to claw back $1.1 billion previously allocated for public broadcasting helped cushion the financial blow.
“The extraordinary generosity of donors across the nation has really mitigated some of the hardest impacts of the loss of federal funding,” Maher said, vowing to use the additional financial runway provided by the donations, which included a pair of private gifts totaling $113 million, to get to “a place where we are sustainable for the future.”
The changes, as outlined by NPR executives, include merging several newsroom desks, overhauling NPR’s digital platforms and app, and placing greater emphasis on enterprise and investigative reporting rather than incremental daily coverage.
The funding debate has unfolded alongside mounting Republican criticism of public broadcasters. Earlier this year, the House Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency called Maher and PBS CEO Paula Kerger to testify over allegations of ideological bias in coverage.
Republicans cited NPR’s past dismissal of reporting related to Hunter Biden’s laptop and coverage involving transgender issues and race. During the March hearing, Maher acknowledged that NPR’s handling of the Hunter Biden laptop story had been a mistake, while defending the organization’s commitment to nonpartisan journalism.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/business/npr-cuts-newsroom-jobs-due-to-federal-funding-loss-expected-drop-in-sponsorship-revenue-6027863
>Tells All
Illuminati Wife Tells All - The Kay Griggs Story (full)
Kay Griggs, Former Marine Colonel’s Wife Talks Again About Military Assassin Squads, Drug Running, Illegal Weapon Deals And Sexual Perversion Deep Within The Highest Levels Of U.S. Military And Government.
For 11 long years, Kay Griggs heard all the messy details from her military husband, usually while he was drinking before going into one of his drunken stupors. First going public in 1998 in an eight-hour video interview with a truth-seeking Michigan pastor and FM radio broadcaster, she now is back after 9/11 to warn Americans to beware of the evil lurking within the highest levels of government, bound and determined to destroy America.
Katharine ‘Kay’ Griggs knows what it’s like to have a gun pointed in her face. She knows what it’s like to have her face slapped, her bones broken and her nose bloodied by her former bully of a husband, an active Marine Colonel and a man who she claims is “above the law and literally gets away with murder.”
Virginia court documents and photos of her battered arms and legs tell the sad and brutal physical story of her failed marriage, a tumultuous 11 year roller coaster ride ending in 1999.
But the real story for public consumption isn’t the private divorce court details. It is the secret military information about drug running, weapon sales, sexual perversion and assassination squads she learned firsthand from her husband, U.S. Marine Corps Col. George Raymond Griggs, now remarried and living in Mirror Lake, NH.
This isn’t the first time Griggs is going public with her story about government mob-like hit squads and the sexually perverted secret “cap and gown and skull and bone society” her husband belonged to along with other high-ranking Marine officers an pubic officials.
She first went public in 1996 after receiving death threats, being rescued by Sarah McClendon, former senior member of the White House press corps, who believed her story and took Griggs under her wing, giving her a place to stay and important advice about how to stay alive when dealing with military operatives.
“I became a whistle-blower and received death threats,” said Griggs this week in an extended telephone conversation from her Tidewater, VA. home. “I finally wound up living for safety reasons with Sarah, the dean of the White House Press Corps, who had been with every president since FDR and was in Army intelligence and also an attorney’s daughter from Texas.”
Since then Griggs said she went back to her Virginia home, tried to piece her life together and essentially talked to private groups or anybody who would take the time to listen.
Now this week Griggs decided to tell her story again, saying “I will keep repeating it to anyone” and adding after 9/11, the war in Iraq, the London bombings and the fear of terrorism, the “American people are at a point were they are ready and willing to hear the truth.”… Although they may be shocked, Griggs said the “truth will set you free,” even if it means facing up to the highest form of corruption, including sexual perversion and government sponsored mob-like hits orchestrated by high-ranking military and government officials.
“My former husband George, who is a trained assassin, calls the people he is involved with the members of The Firm or The Brotherhood. If you are in the click, you are above the law and literally can get away with murder. For years, mostly when he was drinking, he told me how he and others in this elite military group would kill people,” said Griggs, as she mentioned name after high-powered name and story after-detailed story about sexual perversion, murder, military hit squads, brainwashing and mind control, all activities sanctioned, participated in and condoned by a group of military and political elite.
“There were many other things and people he told me about which were startling, things I’ll tell you later. But George is like a robot, glazed eyes and all. While he drinks, he sort of comes alive. It is hard to explain unless you actually see him. He told me he was the No. 1 shooter for a long time for a group of powerful people at the top. If a guy is too honest, for example, they get rid of him.”
“As far as the sheer numbers of people involved in this cap and gown, skull and bones secret society, it's hard to say. But it is based on old friendships, college and prep school relationships, covering up secrets and sexual perversion.
“My husband told me about all the sexually perverted rituals, like anal and oral sex in coffins at drunken parties and running naked in the woods at Bohemian Grove. Then there was the last time I saw George was in 2001 and he was telling me to keep quiet, but I think he knows I will never stop telling the truth.”
107,554 views 6:32:05
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouFMQKHIlCo
>Seth Keshel
>POTUS just recommended my book
Flopping Aces @FloppingAces
@RealSKeshel just nuked the Democrat mail-in fraud playbook.
They call it the Three Rs:
- Dirty voter rolls create the inventory (Automatic Voter Registration floods them with fakes and ghosts)
- Junk-mail ballots flood the streets (8 states auto-mail to every name)
- Harvesting crews finish the job (paid operatives scoop them up from apartments, offices, and dumpsters)
Proof is everywhere: One Bellevue woman got 16 ballots with different names. A Renton dumpster held hundreds of ballots from four election cycles.
Keshel nailed it perfectly: mail-in voting is “as much of a pathway to secure elections as heroin addiction is a healthy nutrition plan.”
This isn’t democracy. It’s a criminal ballot factory designed to steal elections.
Time to burn it down.
End universal mail-in. End ballot harvesting. End the scam.
(article below)
>The Ballot Factory: Dirty Rolls Create the Inventory, Junk-Mail Ballots Flood the Streets, and the Harvesting Crews Finish the Job
10:47 AM · May 19, 2026·657 Views
https://x.com/i/status/2056748630577725476
You thinking a Massi - Amash ticket; Massie - Swalwell maybe a better match as
>Massie does seem to be a deviant scumbag.
Appeals Court Strikes Down New York’s Concealed Carry Law for Private Property
The Second Circuit upheld the state’s ban on guns in public parks but rejected a rule covering private businesses open to the public.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has struck down a major part of New York state’s restrictions on carrying firearms, handing gun rights advocates a partial victory in their challenge to a law they say drastically curtailed where licensed gun owners may carry in the Empire State.
In a decision issued on Monday, a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit affirmed a lower court ruling blocking New York from enforcing its ban on firearms on private property open to the public—such as restaurants, gas stations, and retail stores—without the owner’s express consent.
Under that provision, part of New York’s 2022 Concealed Carry Improvement Act, even people with valid concealed carry licenses cannot carry firearms on private property unless the property owner explicitly allows it.
Second Amendment advocates have called New York’s law, as well as similar measures in Hawaii and elsewhere, “vampire laws,” drawing a parallel to the folklore that a vampire cannot enter a private home unless expressly invited inside.
The judges, however, upheld the state’s ban on carrying firearms in public parks, another provision of the 2022 law.
In its 43-page opinion, the panel examined New York’s law under the standard set by the U.S. Supreme Court, which requires the government to show that its gun laws are consistent with the nation’s “historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
For New York’s private-property carry ban, the state failed to identify meaningful historical analogues, the judges concluded. In its argument, New York placed significant weight on a 1771 New Jersey law prohibiting trespassing with guns, but the panel said trespassing on someone’s home or farm is quite different from entering an inn or shop serving the public.
Writing for the majority, U.S. Circuit Judge Joseph F. Bianco said New York’s private-property provision not only does not align with the nation’s history and tradition, but would also likely “significantly hinder the ability of individuals to meaningfully exercise” their Second Amendment right to defend themselves in public.
“In other words, because many private property owners will likely not post signs indicating whether firearms are permitted or forbidden on their premises, rules like the ones promulgated by New York and Hawaii will effectively prohibit individuals from carrying firearms on any private property, even private property that is open to the general population,” Bianco wrote.
New York’s ban on carrying firearms in public parks, however, survived the same legal review. The judges noted that more than 60 laws nationwide have directly prohibited carrying guns in urban public parks, and that none of those appear to have been invalidated by a court.
Among the historical examples cited was an 1858 ordinance tied to the creation of New York City’s Central Park, which required signs stating that firearms were forbidden inside the park.
“With the explosion of urban parks came contemporaneous regulations that, like the Central Park regulation, flat out prohibited gun carriage inside those parks,” Bianco wrote in the majority opinion.
U.S. Circuit Judge Steven Menashi dissented on that point, saying the court should have looked further back to the United States’ founding era.
“Regulations during the founding period restricted the misuse of firearms and the manner of carriage but did not prohibit carriage in public parks or other places reserved for recreation and public gatherings,” Menashi wrote. “In my view, the historical evidence from the founding period cannot be discounted.”
The Second Amendment Foundation, one of the gun rights groups challenging the state law, celebrated the court’s opinion.
“While today’s ruling strikes down a key pillar of New York’s carry ban law, there’s still plenty of work to be done, including on the issue of carry in parks,” SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb said in a statement to The Epoch Times.
Gun-control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, meanwhile, praised the court’s decision to uphold the parks portion of the ban.
“By upholding New York’s parks law, the Second Circuit has made it clear that we have a right to protect our communities from the unique dangers of guns in sensitive places,” Janet Carter, managing director of Everytown’s legal arm, said in a statement.
The U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing the broader issue of whether states may ban guns on private property open to the public without the owner’s express consent, in Wolford v. Lopez, a case centering on Hawaii’s version of the carry ban.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/appeals-court-strikes-down-new-yorks-concealed-carry-law-for-private-property-6027871
FULL SPEECH:
Bishop Robert Barron on First Pillar of Rededicate 250
May 17, 2026 41K views 13:56
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQK5eAEU8EU
Trump knifes former ally with bombshell endorsement in Texas Senate race
President Donald Trump on Tuesday endorsed controversial Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton
over incumbent Senator John Cornyn to upend the Texas Senate race.
Paxton and Cornyn are on the ballot in a runoff election next Tuesday after neither Republican candidate reached a 50 percent threshold in the state's March primary.
Trump wrote in a Truth Social post that Paxton had always been loyal to him while Cornyn 'was not supportive of me when times were tough.'
'Therefore, Ken Paxton has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next United States Senator from the Great State of Texas,' Trump said.
The President had originally said he would endorse in the closely watched race the day after primary Election Day, which was more than two months ago.
But with the runoff election looming in one week, Trump finally decided that it was time.
'There are those that say whoever I endorse is going to win. I don't know if that's true. Historically that's absolutely true. I just don't like to say it because I don't like to brag,' Trump told reporters during an ourdoor tour of the White House ballroom site Tuesday.
Paxton had been leading Cornyn in polls in recent weeks. …
https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15831413/donald-trump-ken-paxton-texas-senate-endorsement.html
Batya Ungar-Sargon @bungarsargon
It's exactly two weeks until my bookThe Jews and the Leftcomes out. I could not be more excited! Two heroes, @DouglasKMurray & @ScottJenningsKY, did me the honor of blurbing my book—I hope you'll consider picking up a copy! Order here: https://a.co/d/08Y1sG7P
1:34 PM · May 19, 2026·2,749 Views
https://x.com/i/status/2056790680169591037
Jack Prandelli @jackprandelli
The US Department of Energy just mapped every data center in America.
This is what the AI power grid looks like.
The dots are data centers.
Yellow = operating.
Orange = under construction.
White = planned.
The lines are high-voltage transmission 735kV, 500kV, 345kV the arteries that move electrons from generators to compute loads.
Look at the density along the East Coast, Northern Virginia to the Carolinas.
Then look at Texas.
Then Northern California.
The largest circles on this map represent facilities demanding over 5,000 MW of power.
Single campuses pulling more electricity than mid-sized cities.
Northern Virginia is so dense the dots overlap.
Data centers cluster on transmission corridors.
Not because land is cheap because power is available.
When the line is full, the next data center goes somewhere else.
The grid is the bottleneck.
Every orange dot is a power purchase agreement being negotiated right now.
Every white dot is a utility commission filing, a gas plant approval, a pipeline capacity booking.
The $66.8 bn NextEra-Dominion deal, Meta's 10 new gas plants in Louisiana, the Alaska LNG FID push they all trace back to maps that look like this.
AI infrastructure is built in substations, on transmission corridors, and at the end of gas pipelines.
Link in the comments, to see my stocks 👇
11:38 AM · May 19, 2026·34.6K Views
https://x.com/i/status/2056761523314250100
[ Thune] turns on president
as GOP revolt erupts over [1,776,000,000] $1.8bn slush fund for MAGA allies: 'He sued himself'
The top Republican senator has turned on Donald Trump over his $1.8 billion taxpayer-funded payout to his political allies.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has come out against the 'anti-weaponization' settlement approved by the Justice Department. Under the deal, Trump dropped his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the IRS in exchange for the creation of a fund channeling taxpayer money to victims of 'lawfare,' including January 6 rioters.
'Yeah, not a big fan. I'm not sure exactly how they intend to use it. But my understanding is that was just announced,' Thune told reporters. 'But yeah, I don't see a purpose for it.'
The $1.776 billion fund will have the power to issue formal apologies and monetary relief owed to claimants. While Trump is barred from directly receiving payments from the fund, entities associated with him are not explicitly prohibited from filing additional ones.
Other top GOP lawmakers, including outgoing Senator Bill Cassidy, a top Trump critic who just lost his primary, called the compensation efforts a 'slush fund' and questioned the administration's legal authority to hand out money to people investigated or prosecuted under Biden.
'Somebody explained it to me this way, an attorney,' Senator Cassidy said. 'It is as if somebody sued themselves and agreed upon a settlement with themselves that's going to be funded by the rest of us. If that's the case: What?!'
Senator Rand Paul, another prominent Republican who is backing Trump's Senate rival Thomas Massie in his upcoming primary race, also slammed the President's payout fund.
'I've never heard of someone negotiating with themselves and making a plea bargain with themselves, so I think there's no precedent for it,' Trump said. …
https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15831839/Trumps-Senate-Republican-turns-president-GOP-revolt-erupts-1-8bn-slush-fund-MAGA-allies-sued-himself.html
Trump's top attorney quits hours after $1.8 billion slush fund to pay MAGA allies and J6 rioters sparks backlash
Donald Trump's lead attorney at the Treasury Department stepped down hours after the administration unveiled a $1.8 billion fund to pay the President's political allies.
Trump settled a $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the IRS in exchange for the creation of a fund to funnel taxpayer money to victims of 'lawfare', including January 6 rioters. Democrats are calling it the most corrupt presidential act in history.
Brian Morrissey, who was confirmed as the Treasury's general counsel just seven months ago, tendered his resignation within hours of the fund's creation.
His departure appears to coincide with Trump's settlement. In his resignation letter, however, Morrissey thanked the President and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, saying he was grateful to have worked in the administration, according to the New York Times.
Five commissioners will be appointed to oversee the fund and disburse payments to those seeking redress for alleged political persecution under Biden.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump's former attorney who defended him during his criminal trials, will be responsible for appointments to the commission. Trump has the authority to remove any member.
The$1.776billion fund will have the power to issue formal apologies and monetary relief owed to claimants. While Trump is barred from directly receiving payments from the fund, entities associated with him are not explicitly prohibited from filing additional ones.
The President, his sons Don Jr and Eric, and the Trump Organization initially filed suit against the Treasury and IRS in the Southern District of Florida federal court after the leak of their tax returns in 2019. …
https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15830999/Trumps-attorney-quits-hours-1-8-billion-slush-fund-pay-MAGA-allies-J6-rioters-sparks-backlash.html
1) Trump's lead attorney at the Treasury Department stepped down hours after the administration unveiled a $1.8 billion fund to pay the President's political allies
2) Brian Morrissey has quit, just seven months after he was announced as general counsel