Anthony Scaramucci, the newly appointed White House communications director has promised to crack down on leaks and he’s turned his sights on none other than White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus.
Scaramucci suggested Thursday that Priebus was sharing confidential information with the press during a segment on CNN’s “New Day,” in which he also compared their relationship to Cain and Able.
Scaramucci said he and President Donald Trump have a “very good idea” of who the leakers are in the White Hosue and “if Reince wants to explain that he’s not a leaker, let him do that.”
Scaramucci admitted he didn’t yet know who the White House leakers are, though the night before his Thursday CNN appearance, Scaramucci wrote in a since-deleted tweet that he was asking the FBI to investigate leaks of his financial information and tagging Priebus’ Twitter handle.
“In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony. I will be contacting @FBI and the @TheJusticeDept #swamp @Reince45,” Scaramucci tweeted Wednesday.
Scaramucci addressed the tweet on CNN.
“When I put out a tweet and I put Reince’s name in the tweet, they’re all making the assumption that it’s him, because journalists know who the leakers are,” he said. “If Reince wants to explain that he’s not a leaker, let him do that.”
Under pressure from Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions told the Washington Post his office is readying an announcement about an official criminal probe into the White House leaks, and a Justice Department spokesperson told Huffington Post stopping leaks was a top priority.
“We agree with Anthony that these staggering number of leaks are undermining the ability of our government to function and to protect this country,” Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said to Huffington Post. “Like the Attorney General has said, ‘Whenever a case can be made, we will seek to put some people in jail, and we will aggressively pursue leak cases wherever they may lead.’”
