President Trump said he knows the identity of “Anonymous.”
His statement to reporters on Tuesday indicates a multipronged search within the White House for the author of the tell-all book, A Warning, which spoke of a resistance movement within the Trump administration, has been successful.
“I know who it is,” Trump said as he boarded a plane at Joint Base Andrews destined for Los Angeles, adding that he could not divulge a name just yet.
“But I know who it is,” he added. “We won’t get into it. People know it’s a fraud. I know who it is, and I know who some of the leakers are.”
Earlier in the month, Trump removed Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman from the National Security Council, along with his twin brother, after he testified against Trump in the Democrat-led impeachment proceedings in the House last year. National security adviser Robert O’Brien, who denied allegations that the Vindmans had been retaliated against, has cut dozens of NSC positions inherited from the Obama administration.
Over the weekend, it was reported that White House trade adviser Peter Navarro initiated an unofficial investigation into Anonymous, alongside others, including one by National Security Council officials.
Reporters and officials close to the president have attempted to identify “Anonymous” since the unidentified Trump administration official wrote a New York Times opinion piece spoke of an internal “resistance” within the government.
Joe diGenova, a former U.S. attorney, said this week he was told by “a senior government official” that “Anonymous” had been identified as an official working in the White House and would be removed “soon.”
In the book A Warning, released in November, Anonymous alleged that a number of White House aides made note of Cabinet members they believed would support using the 25th Amendment to kick Trump out of office.
Anonymous pledged in a Reddit forum late last year to speak out against Trump before the 2020 election “in my own name.”
