It's not often that we associate leakers within the government with criminals -- often, they're just frustrated liberals. But leaking the location of potential ICE raids or leaking American troop locations endangers the safety of Americans. Are reporters going to defend these kinds of leaks?
One way Trump could seek retribution in a second term is by going after leakers who seek to undermine the White House agenda. Anonymous Trump-trashing sources were all the rage in the first term, and that’s what puts the emphasis on the phrase Deep State. Whenever anyone uses that term, think of government actors (or -- government actors from the other party who are temporarily out of government) trying to run the government from behind a wall, cooperating with unelected media outlets.
There’s Kash Patel news on this front. Just The News reported the FBI has launched an investigation into “dishonest leakers” inside the bureau who have recently pushed “false information” to the media – leaks that FBI officials say has undermined the mission of the nation’s premiere law enforcement institution.
Tom Jones at Poynter.org led with this today: "The Department of Homeland Security, led by Secretary Kristi Noem, has begun performing polygraph tests on employees to determine if they are leaking information about immigration operations to the media."
During an interview with Face the Nation, Noem said she plans to use the “broad and extensive” authorities of her role, adding, “we’re making sure we’re following through on what President Trump has promised — that he’s going to make America safe again.” AP’s Christine Fernando noted, “While these polygraph exams are typically not admissible in court proceedings, they are frequently used by federal law enforcement agencies and for national security clearances.” Jones posits this may be the first time polygraph tests were used to find leakers. I doubt that. Leak investigations have happened routinely going back to the Pentagon Papers. They often don’t accomplish much – let’s begin with leaking sexual harassment claims against Clarence Thomas, or leaking the drafts of the Dobbs decision, in the hopes of saving Roe vs. Wade.
Noem and border czar Tom Homan have blamed lower-than-expected Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrest numbers on leaks to the media. In the current environment, the open-borders activists on the left have been heavily involved in wink-wink, helping illegal aliens evade capture by making sure they quote-unquote Know Their Rights. AOC told NPR she was just helping her “constituents” -- the illegal aliens of eastern part of The Bronx and north-central Queens.
This is a little cute, because if we were advising the Election Deniers in "Knowing their Rights," the Left wouldn’t focus on the the Rights part, they’d focus on how you’re exacerbating the problem of election denialism. Your concern for a constituency’s rights display your political favorites.
Anyway, Noem has tweeted: “We have identified criminal leakers within @DHSGov and are preparing to refer these perpetrators to the @DOJ for felony prosecutions. These individuals face up to 10 years in federal prison. We will find and root out all leakers. They will face prison time & we will get justice for the American people.” Reporters HATE threats like these against leakers. Its bad for the liberal business.
Leaking itself isn’t something we instantly associate with prison. It sounds harsh, like it’s anti-journalism. But it’s different if you’re leaking national-security secrets, or you’re leaking where ICE is going to show up. Weeks after 9/11, we reported NPR’s foreign editor Loren Jenkins vows to “smoke out” American troop locations in Afghanistan. Jenkins told the Chicago Tribune he had no desire to aid a lying Pentagon. He represented “history.” Reporters think they’re above the law.
Also: how NPR conducted a hostile interview for Weekend Edition Saturday with Fox host Greg Gutfeld, compared to how NPR has celebrated all the lefties -- Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, John Oliver, Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Kathy Griffin -- even Jordan Klepper was celebrated once for his shortly lived Comedy Central show.
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