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Almost a year later, we still don’t know.

Outside of a tiny circle of insiders, no one knows who wrote the instantly viral op-ed column about President Donald Trump that appeared in the New York Times last Sept. 5. Despite an informal White House investigation, plenty of outside sleuthing and a whole internet’s worth of guessing, his or her identity remains unknown.

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The column – “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration” – set social media aflame and cable chat shows ablabber with speculation about who the “senior official” behind it could be.

Kellyanne Conway? Mike Pompeo? Nikki Haley? Mike Pence? In the year since publication, dozens of names have been floated. All have denied it, sometimes ostentatiously. No one has stepped forward or conclusively been shown to be the author.

Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images

History suggests this cannot last. Others who started out as anonymous in high-profile cases have eventually been revealed.

The sensation surrounding the Times op-ed writer began almost instantly upon publication of the 900-word column. The article described in very general terms efforts by White House staffers, including the author, to thwart Trump’s “amorality” and “impulsiveness,” which had resulted, according to the writer, “in half-baked, ill-informed and occasionally reckless decisions that have to be walked back.”

The most outraged reaction came, perhaps predictably, from Trump himself. “If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!” he demanded in a tweet a few hours after the column was published. Trump never explained what aspect of national security was imperiled by the unflattering column. Nevertheless, he thundered: “TREASON?”