Who Is Leaking White House Secrets To The Media? Sean Spicer Investigating Staff, Checking Phones

The first five weeks of President Donald Trump’s administration have been marred by internal leaks to the media, which have included damning information about how the new commander-in-chief is viewed by his staff, the president’s executive orders or plans for said orders and the FBI’s investigation into whether Trump’s campaign had close contact with Russian intelligence officials last year.

Now, in an effort to combat the leaks, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer has reportedly started investigating his own communications staff by having their personal and government issued cell phones searched. He has become increasingly angry and even cursed at his staff while in pursuit of leakers, Politico reported Sunday.

Because of the leaks, Trump himself has launched a full-scale Twitter attack and during his speeches on the media over its coverage of him and the use of anonymous sources. He even directed some vitriol towards the FBI about supposed leakers.

In effect, Spicer, who has faced myriad criticism and even parody for how he spoke to and handled the media during press conferences, started his own search on the communications staff. After information from a planning meeting was brought to light last week, Spicer evidently called his staff into his office – with White House lawyers present – and ordered everyone to dump their phones and any other electronic devices on their person on his desk for a “phone check,” according to Politico.

Spicer also stated that using encrypted messaging applications like Confide and Signal was in violation of the Presidential Records Act, which switched the president and vice president’s official records from private to public beginning in 1981.

Another anecdote from the story alleged that Spicer has been especially critical of his staff and ripped into them for their work, including deputy communications director Jessica Ditto, who supposedly cried after Spicer yelled at her. However, Ditto denied to Politico that ever occurred.

While plugging the leaks has become a mission for the Trump administration, it, too, was a priority for President Barack Obama and his administration. A report in published in October 2013 compared Obama’s “war on leaks” to be even more aggressive than disgraced President Richard Nixon, according to The Guardian.