The White House is reportedly working overtime trying to catch leakers
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has shared with several people his surefire way to catch suspected leakers: give them specific information and see if it later shows up in print.
Multiple officials told Axios that Meadows has been "unusually vocal" about his technique, yet his tactic has netted only one person for a minor leak. President Trump has been adamant about how important it is to him that leakers get caught, and he was clear in letting Meadows, his fourth chief of staff, know that one of his duties is hunting down the perpetrators.
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His predecessor, Mick Mulvaney, was always trying to find leakers, a former White House official said. He requested that the White House IT department take a close look at phone records and see if any officials were calling reporters. Mulvaney already had a tense relationship with White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, Axios reports, and when he saw that Cipollone had called journalists, he raced to tell Trump about his suspicions. A former official said Trump — who had asked Cipollone to speak with the media — saw no reason to believe Cipollone was guilty of leaking, and dismissed the information.
Presidential historian Chris Whipple told Axios this is a level of paranoia "that we never even saw in the Nixon White House." To prevent leaks, staffers need to feel as though their "voices are heard" and they have "a stake in the process and there's some integrity," Whipple said. A good chief of staff "knows that the best way to prevent damaging leaks is to stop doing illegal, stupid stuff."
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