Krauthammer: White House ‘protesting too much’ on leaks

Fox News commentator Charles Krauthammer on Friday warned White House officials that they may be “protesting too much” in the face of revelations that a White House official close to President Trump has been identified as a person of interest in the FBI’s Russia probe.

“I think here they are protesting too much,” Krauthammer said on Fox News’ “Special Report With Bret Baier.”

“And [White House press secretary Sean] Spicer’s protest … that this is an issue of the leak, is inadvertently self-indicting because the idea that journalists are going to receive leaks, it’s a constant.”

Krauthammer also sought to cast the slew of leaks coming out of the White House as a “loyalty problem” within Trump’s inner circle.

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“The problem here is an inner circle of people here who have lost faith or are betraying or whatever,” he said. “But it’s certainly not a leak problem that ought to interest us. It’s a loyalty problem inside the White House.”

Trump has frequently assailed leaks coming from his administration, and has often argued that news organizations should be more focused on covering government officials’ disclosures of internal information as a national security issue.

The leaks, however, have provided deep insight into the Trump administration and frequently drive news coverage of ongoing federal investigations into Russian election meddling. 

A New York Times article published on Friday reported that Trump had told visiting Russian officials that he had been relieved of “great pressure” after firing FBI Director James Comey last week.

Krauthammer argued that the information included in that report must have been leaked by a person in that meeting or someone within Trump’s inner circle.