Former national security adviser H.R. McMaster spoke Tuesday of two reasons for leaks he’s observed — addressing a national security issue he grappled with while working in the Trump administration.
During a sit-down interview at an event held by Perry World House, McMaster explained the two types of leaks he witnessed.
“One of them was to damage the president,” he said. “Some of these leaks we know went from people who were on the staff who went to people they worked with in a previous administration — and I think they were leaked to damage the president’s reputation.”
The second motive, he said, was more self-serving. “I think some of the leaks occurred because there were those who wanted to manipulate the president into a particular decision consistent with their agenda,” he said.
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McMaster had little to say on efforts to crack down on leaks, which have plagued the White House even after his exit earlier this year. He did act during his time in office, issuing a memo last September on stopping leaks, but in an ironic twist even that document was leaked. His struggles to contend with leaks among staff even led to some Republican lawmakers to call for his ouster before his successor — John Bolton — was announced in March.
Offering advice on what the White House could do now, he recommended some kind of improved investigative capability.
McMaster was adamant about the implications of such leaks, which he said are a “gift” to rivals like Russia.
“Some of these leaks have an immediate effect of placing U.S. officials and servicemen and women in greater danger,” he said. “Undermining really critical capabilities by revealing the nature of those capabilities whether it’s space or cyberspace and so forth. It’s a big problem.”
McMaster also said leaks can be damaging to the president’s agenda.
As for the recent New York Times op-ed, which was authored by an anonymous senior Trump administration official telling of an internal resistance, McMaster said the ideas laid out in that piece would amount to “undermining the Constitution of the United States.”
