U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he’s stepping up efforts to investigate and prosecute leaks of classified information with help from a new counterintelligence unit at the FBI, working to address a top concern of President Donald Trump.
“We are taking a stand,” Sessions said Friday at a news conference alongside Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats. “This culture of leaking must stop.”
Though the event was planned earlier, Sessions noted it took place a day after the Washington Post published transcripts of phone conversations in January between Trump and the leaders of Australia and Mexico. Asked about the transcripts, White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said Thursday that the continuing leaks are “damaging to our national security and it’s something we take very seriously.”
Sessions, who received assurances about his job security from the White House over the weekend, has previously pledged to crack down on leaks, especially after sensitive information about a terrorist attack in Manchester, England leaked to U.S. news media outlets in May.
The attorney general didn’t unveil any new, specific actions the Trump administration is taking, and he declined to take questions after the announcement. Rather, Sessions said “the department is reviewing policies that impact leak investigations,” including reviewing policies on subpoenaing media outlets that publish stories based on leaks.
‘With Impunity’
“We respect the important role that the press plays and will give them respect, but it is not unlimited,” Sessions, 70, said. “They cannot place lives at risk with impunity.”
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said the department will look at how to conduct media subpoenas “more expeditiously,” adding that current law imposes procedural hurdles.
Bolstering the complaint by Trump and his close aides that Washington insiders are determined to undermine him, Sessions said the Justice Department has received about as many criminal referrals regarding leaks in the first six months of this year as in the previous three years combined. Since January, the number of active leak investigations at the department has tripled, he added.
Sessions emphasized that he’s in accord with Trump. “I strongly agree with the president and condemn in the strongest terms the staggering number of leaks undermining the ability of our government to protect this country,” he said.
The president in recent weeks had called Sessions “weak” for recusing himself from the federal criminal investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election and whether the president or any of his associates colluded with Moscow. He also said Sessions had taken “a VERY weak position” on “Hillary Clinton crimes” and “Intel leakers!”
Trump’s criticism was seen by some as a move to eventually put someone in charge at the Justice Department who would fire Robert Mueller from his post as special counsel leading the Russia investigation. However, new White House Chief of Staff John Kelly told Sessions in a phone call last weekend that his position is safe.