President Trump is seeking to reduce the number of leaks from the White House by removing some midlevel and junior staffers on the communications team, according to a new report.
White House chief of staff John Kelly has approved a plan that would clear out some officials in the communications department, but top aides, including White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, are expected to keep their posts, per Politico.
Some staffers are expected to be fired, while others will be reassigned to different positions.
Ultimately, the staff changes are designed to remove leakers and establish a more direct chain of command, sources told Politico.
The report comes after it was leaked that White House communications aide Kelly Sadler said Republican Sen. John McCain’s, R-Ariz., pushback on Trump’s CIA director nominee was irrelevant because “he’s dying anyway.”
Following the disclosure, Trump claimed that leaks were a “massive over exaggeration,” but warned that staffers sharing information with the press would be identified.
“The so-called leaks coming out of the White House are a massive over exaggeration put out by the Fake News Media in order to make us look as bad as possible,” Trump tweeted May 14. “With that being said, leakers are traitors and cowards, and we will find out who they are!”
News of Kelly’s plan follows White House counselor Kellyanne Conway saying May 17 some of the leakers are known.
“But they’re not all in the press and comms shop either, and they’re not all junior folks,” she said.
[Related: Kellyanne Conway says White House doesn’t have many leaks, that press staff innocent]
