A leak that disclosed details of several warnings President Trump received ahead of his phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday has rattled White House aides, with one official calling the leak “a fireable offense.”
A senior White House official told the Washington Examiner the information contained in the Washington Post’s report likely meant that “someone leaked the president’s briefing papers.”
“Leaking such information is a fireable offense and likely illegal,” the official said.
According to a document leaked to the Post, Trump was urged not to congratulate Putin on being elected to a fourth term during their conversation Tuesday morning. National security aides also pushed Trump to question his Russian counterpart on the recent nerve-agent poisoning of an ex-spy in London. A White House readout of the call confirmed that Trump disregarded both requests.
“The focus was to talk about areas of shared interest,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters on Tuesday, citing issues such as North Korea, Iran and the U.S.-Russian arms race.
Several administration officials, including Trump himself and chief of staff John Kelly, were said to be furious over the latest leak of material that is typically shared only with the president’s closest circle of senior advisers. As previously reported by the Washington Examiner, similar frustrations emerged early last year after details leaked to the press about a pair of tense phone calls Trump had made to the leaders of Australia and Mexico.
At the time, a senior administration official confirmed that such leaks are usually referred to the Justice Department for the attorney general to review and determine whether to launch an investigation.
