‘PARANOIA’

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows Feeds Staffers Info to Trap Leakers: Report

A presidential historian told Axios the hunt for leakers was a “level of paranoia that we never even saw in the Nixon White House.”

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has informed several staffers that he has been feeding specific bits of information to certain members of staff suspected of leaking information to the press in an attempt to catch the leakers, Axios reports. Meadows has reportedly caught one leaker using this tactic. President Donald Trump has reportedly expressed anger about leaks of sensitive classified information, as well as the leak that alerted media to the Secret Service escorting him to the bunker during protests outside the White House last month. Meadows is “focused on national security leaks and could care less about the palace intrigue stories,” according to one source. The extensive search for leakers is “unprecedented” among chiefs of staff, presidential historian Chris Whipple told Axios. “It’s a level of paranoia that we never even saw in the Nixon White House,” Whipple said.