White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said Thursday she was “not aware” of a report that communications director Anthony Scaramucci wants the FBI to investigate Chief of Staff Reince Priebus as the person who leaked his financial information. After speaking with Scaramucci and President Trump Thursday morning, Conway claimed someone in the White House is trying to bully the new communications official.
“I think the most important part of Anthony’s tweet was when he talked about the FBI and the [Justice Department]. He’s making clear that even though these documents are eventually procurable publicly, that somebody doesn’t want him here and somebody is trying to get in his way and scare him off from working here, which is a huge mistake,” Conway told Fox News’ “Fox and Friends” when asked about the report. On Wednesday night, the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza tweeted that “Scaramucci wants the FBI to investigate Reince.”
In case there’s any ambiguity in his tweet I can confirm that Scaramucci wants the FBI to investigate Reince for leaking.
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) July 27, 2017
On Wednesday, Scaramucci tweeted that his financial disclosure had been leaked and tagged Priebus at the end of the message. He removed the post shortly after issuing it.
“I’m not aware of the latter,” Conway said when asked about the report that Scaramucci did actually want an investigation into Priebus. “Leakers are easier to figure out than they think. The West Wing is a small business. I’m the jerk who hired the chief of staff, right, because I thought he was going to work on press policy. We are not here to read about ourselves.”
Scaramucci said Thursday that he would welcome an explanation from Priebus if he’s not the leaker.
“Let him do that,” Scaramucci said in a CNN interview.
Scaramucci has alleged senior members of the White House are having junior members leak for them.
