The reporter who published information that White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci claimed was leaked denies that anyone from the administration leaked it to her. Politico reporter Lorraine Woellert reported Wednesday on Scaramucci’s financial disclosure, which Woellert wrote was available “on request.”
On Wednesday night, Scaramucci tweeted that the release of this document was a “felony” and that he would be contacting the FBI and the Justice Department. Scaramucci also hinted that Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, was behind it. Since deleting his tweet, Scaramucci has challenged Priebus to deny he has leaked—even though there’s no evidence, or even reason to believe, the information was leaked. Because it was publicly available.
Speaking to radio host Michael Smerconish on SiriusXM Thursday morning, Woellert said that neither Priebus nor anyone else at the White House was her source for the financial disclosure document. “My first reaction was, ‘Oh!’,” Woellert said, when asked what she thought when she saw Scaramucci’s tweet. “But as I said, my second reaction was ‘This is nuts’ because the stuff that our story wrote about is easily, publicly available to anyone who wants it. No leak.”
Scaramucci briefly served at the Export-Import Bank earlier this year and was required to fill out a financial disclosure form. That form became public information earlier this week. Woellert says she simply asked the Ex-Im Bank for it and it was provided. “The Ex-Im Bank gave me the financial disclosure form,” she told Smerconish. “Because I asked for it. There was no leak.”
Listen to the audio here.
