There is nothing the Trump White House hates as much as leaks. Which makes this report from Vox particularly noteworthy. What they have is a leak … of the White House policy on leaks.
The core of the memo is a request that the heads of every agency of the federal government — not just the CIA and such but the Department of Labor and the Council on Environmental Quality — “dedicate a 1-hour, organization-wide event to engage their workforce in a discussion on the importance of protecting classified and controlled unclassified information, and measures to prevent and detect unauthorized disclosures.”
As Vox points out, no administration is particularly fond of leaks, but the Trump administration is obsessed by them. And for good reason. When you have an EPA that’s involved in covering up the data produced by its own scientists, and an attorney general more interested in justifications than justice, keeping the public in the dark is vital.
And of course, there’s another area where leaks are a big deal to the Trump White House.
Rep. Adam Schiff on Thursday shot down the idea that the House Intelligence Committee would issue an interim report about its probe into Russia's digital meddling effort in the 2016 presidential election.
The House won’t issue an interim report. The special counsel’s office won’t make anything public until it’s time to either indict or go home. That limits the public view of what’s happening with the Trump–Russia investigation to the few open hearings of Senate and House committees … and leaks. Or at least, what the Trump administration considers leaks.
If Trump gets his way, not only will traditional leaks stop, so will most communication with the public. Because they’re out to redefine almost everything as a leak.
Fortunately, leaks have been plentiful. Trump has advocated a theory of pitting his underlings against one another as the vie for his favor. That policy is reflected in the amazing turnover of staff within the White House as players are encouraged to undercut, disrespect, and generally climb over one another to reach Trump’s side. Add to this the disrespect that Trump’s team holds for all the people who hold the government together. It’s an environment that’s tailor-made to create leaks, in part because Trump’s aides are angry at one another, and in part because many are simply appalled at the system.
With John Kelly outflanking many of Trump’s original crew to capture the chief of staff position, many thought this White House might finally start to patch some of the holes in its security colander. But as the meta-level leak on leaks shows, there are still plenty of openings remaining.
Back on September 10, Axios reported that Sessions suggested giving polygraph tests to government officials in order to suss out the leakers. Scientists say polygraphs don’t work and since they don’t work they can’t be used as evidence in court. But law enforcement likes them, and we all know the Trump administration loves law enforcement.
Polygraphs don’t detect lies, but they’re excellent ways to enforce fear. That’s why pardon and parol boards use them heavily. And it’s the same reason they’re under consideration for the Trump regime. Trump is breeding an atmosphere of distrust, and at least part of that is intentional.
But the main thrust of the leaked-leak memo is the same as what Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has been pressing in her attacks on former FBI Director James Comey.
"The memos that Comey leaked were created on an FBI computer while he was the director," she began, referring to a memo Comey shared with a personal friend that was later leaked to the New York Times. “He claims they were private property, but they clearly followed the protocol of an official FBI document, leaking FBI memos on a sensitive case regardless of classification violates federal laws including the privacy act, standard FBI employment agreement and nondisclosure agreement all personnel must sign. I think that's pretty clean and clear that that would be a violation."
Like Huckabee Sanders’s statements, the leak memo is aimed at redefining what constitutes a leak. Under this scheme, it’s not classified material, or even material that might be subject to the traditional interpretation of “executive privilege.” It’s everything not explicitly handed over for public consumption—or, of course, things provided in a tweet storm or tossed out at a red-meat rally.
The Trump policy on leaks is an effort to make everything a secret, even those things that aren’t and shouldn’t be. The biggest reason for doing this, is to cover up the bumbling, half-digested ideas coughed up by Trump and his inexperienced team. The second reason is to isolate scientists, economists, and general government workers from revealing the true state of the government.
The president is not well-versed in policy and does not have personal relationships with the majority of his Cabinet secretaries and their top subordinates. He doesn’t spend his downtime immersing himself in briefing materials or written memos, and there’s little indication that he’s interested in rolling up his sleeves to really familiarize himself with the work of rank-and-file government employees.
So important items end up not only bottlenecked by Trump’s disinterest, they’re at the mercy of department officials who often go beyond indifferent to openly hostile to their agency goals. Imagine an EPA official handing over recommendations to Scott Pruitt. Or Energy Department scientists trying to get an important study through Rick Perry.
The pipe is not just blocked at the top, but clogged at every level. Which is why it’s going to keep right on leaking—no matter how many memos the White House issues.
The full text of the leak memo is included in the Vox article.