The chief of counterintelligence at the Department of Justice (DOJ) has been accused of leaking information to the press in a new report, causing a firestorm on Twitter, but the DOJ insists the claims are inaccurate.
Twitter personality and political commentator Mike Cernovich released a report Tuesday, stating that sources confirmed to him that “Obama holdover David Laufman is the source of the national security leaks.”
“The leaks have wrongly been blamed on the FBI, sources tell me, leading to a morale issue with the agency,” a source reportedly told Cernovich.
The report further stated that Laufman has the authority to end investigations into leaks, which he has been exercising.
But DOJ spokesman Marc Raimondi told The Daily Caller News Foundation that the report is false and is full of errors.
“I have to say, I read that report. and I was not able to find anything in there that was accurate,” Raimondi said. “[Laufman] is not an appointee, he’s a career employee. So, he’s not a holdover. He was hired as a career employee, and he is in our counter espionage section, and I’m not aware of anything that would lead me to believe that anything in that story was accurate.”
“It kinda came out of left-field. They didn’t contact me for any comment. There are certainly inaccuracies in it and I’m not aware of any outlets that are looking at it and thinking it’s accurate.”
Raimondi vehemently denied the allegation that Laufman was the source of the leaks.
“There is no truth to that,” he told TheDCNF.
President Donald Trump has found himself in a battle with the intelligence community, but he hasn’t been clear on from where the leaks inside his administration are coming — up until now.
In a recent interview with Fox & Friends, Trump said he thinks people loyal to President Barack Obama have orchestrated the leaks.
“No, I think that President Obama is behind it because his people are certainly behind it,” Trump said. “And some of the leaks possibly come from that group, which are really serious because they are very bad in terms of national security. But I also understand that is politics. In terms of him being behind things, that’s politics. And it will probably continue.”
These leaks have had very real consequences. National security adviser Michael Flynn was forced to resign after records of his call with the Russian ambassador were leaked to the press.
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