Trump Escapes D.C. but Not Damaging Leaks

Leakers from inside the administration struck again on Friday, just minutes after President Donald Trump took off on Air Force One for foreign soil.

As the president was in the air on his first trip abroad — leakers took the opportunity to release information to embarrass and undermine Trump. The outlets of choice were the usual suspects: The New York Times and The Washington Post.

“I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job.”

The Times’ leak was potentially the larger story: alleging Trump told two Russian diplomats on May 10 that he fired former FBI Director James Comey because he was a “nut job.”

“I just fired the head of the FBI. He was crazy, a real nut job,” Trump said, according to The Times. “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”

Sean Spicer, Trump’s press secretary, did not deny the account to The Times.

Critics did not just seize on the rough talk aimed at Comey, but instead claimed the incident was, almost, obstruction of justice.

As usual, CNN’s legal analyst, left-wing lawyer Jeff Toobin, said Trump’s language was “straightforward” — and an admission of guilt.

“It does seem very close to an admission of obstruction of justice,” said Toobin.

At The Post, an anonymous source leaked to the newspaper that, for the first time, federal investigators are eyeing someone inside the White House regarding the investigation into Russian hacking in the 2016 election.

“The law enforcement investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign has identified a current White House official as a significant person of interest, showing that the probe is reaching into the highest levels of government, according to people familiar with the matter,” The Post wrote.

The Post did not specify if its anonymous sources were federal investigators.

“The senior White House adviser under scrutiny by investigators is someone close to the president, according to these people, who would not further identify the official,” the Post reported. “The revelation comes as the investigation appears to be entering a more overtly active phase, with investigators shifting from work that has remained largely hidden from the public to conducting interviews and using a grand jury to issue subpoenas. The intensity of the probe is expected to accelerate in the coming weeks, the people said.”

Unrestrained speculation soon began, with liberal journalists suggesting, without basis, that the person was Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Yashar Ali, a contributor to New York magazine and The Nation, tweeted, “It’s Jared Kushner have confirmed this with four people. I’m not speculating.”

But Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) scoffed at the anonymously sourced story. Nunes told Fox News’ James Rosen that many of the stories by the major liberal newspapers later turned out to be false.

Nunes could be referring to the fake news peddled earlier this year by The Post that the Russians were able to hack into the electric-power grid in Vermont.

Or he could be referring to the exhaustive list made by Mollie Hemingway of The Federalist, who wrote “Tips For Reading Washington Post Stories About Trump Based On Anonymous Leaks.”

Hemingway noted that The Post’s Ashley Parker wrote on May 10 that “then-FBI Director James B. Comey requested more resources from the Justice Department for his bureau’s investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, according to two officials with knowledge of the discussion.”

But no such request was made, according to Rod Rosenstein, deputy attorney general, speaking to members of Congress Friday.

Perhaps the most infamous blunder was a January 28 report by The Washington Post’s Josh Rogin, who sourced from an anonymous official that Trump adviser Steve Bannon traveled to meet John Kelly, secretary of Homeland Security, to get him to go along on a proposed travel ban regarding seven predominantly Muslim nations. Kelly blasted the report, and The Post corrected it.

The Times, too, has flubbed some major news: On Friday, writing about the death of Fox News’ founder Roger Ailes, The Times got Ailes’ name wrong, referring to him as “Robert Ailes.”