‘Everyone does it’: media pilfering from Air Force One prompts clampdown

Sources say an email circulated saying if you inadvertently wound up taking something off the plane, we can facilitate a quiet return'

A White House staffer recently met a reporter for a covert assignment by the statue of Andrew Jackson in Lafayette Square.

But the House of Cards-esque rendezvous was not staged to hand over state secrets, or leak presidential gossip, or even to spread dirt on Joe Biden's opponents. The item handed over - an embroidered pillowcase from Air Force One - was handed back, by the reporter involved.