Incoming White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said Thursday that he’s not accusing White House chief of staff Reince Priebus of being a leaker, but said if reporters think he is a leaker, Priebus should maybe explain himself.
“If Reince wants to explain that he’s not a leaker, let him do that,” Scaramucci said on CNN.
Scaramucci: I don’t like the activity that’s going on in the WH. I don’t like what they’re doing to my friends. https://t.co/jvlXoX5iGs— New Day (@NewDay) July 27, 2017
His comment came hours after Scaramucci tweeted that he was going to be contacting the FBI about the leak of his personal financial information, and ended his tweet “@Reince45.”
Some saw that as a sign that he thinks Priebus is a leaker who should be investigated. Scaramucci himself said soon after that tweet that he was not accusing the White House chief of staff, and on CNN, he said it was meant to indicate that he and Priebus have to work together to find the leakers.
“He’s responsible for understanding and uncovering and helping me do that inside the White House, which is why I put that tweet out last night,” he said.
But he also said reporters know who the White House leakers are, and held out the idea that Priebus could be a leaker if reporters seem to think he is.
“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. “So if Reince wants to explain that he’s not a leaker, let him do that.”
Scaramucci also admitted that there is real tension between himself and Priebus.
“We have had odds, we have had differences,” he said. “I don’t know if this is reparable or not. That will be up to the president.”
He said he and Trump have a “very, very good idea of who the leakers are.”
The comments are likely to fuel more speculation that Priebus may be on the way out of the White House. Priebus was known to oppose Scaramucci’s hiring, and White House press secretary Sean Spicer resigned immediately after Trump made it clear he was bringing Scaramucci on board.
Trump has made it clear that finding and getting rid of leakers of classified or internal government information is a top priority of his, and has been pushing Attorney General Jeff Sessions to step up efforts in that direction.
