By Robert Steven Ingebo

The criminal leaking of classified information to the news media is continuing unabated.

In 05/2017, in his testimony before Congress, James Comey, former FBI director, revealed that he asked a close friend to leak private memos he had kept recounting his interactions with Trump to the news media.

As of 07/27/2017, FBI General Counsel James A. Baker is allegedly under a criminal investigation for leaking classified national security information to the media by the Department of Justice, according to anonymous sources of multiple government officials close to the probe who spoke to Circa News.

On Thursday, 08/03/2017, The Washington Post made public leaked transcripts of two conversations President Trump had with foreign leaders: one with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and another with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull.

Trump has been pushing back against the leaks coming out of his administration for weeks as a stream of unbecoming stories has embarrassed the White House.

The leaks of information about the investigations into his campaign’s relationship with Russia or his dealings with foreign leaders are far more serious.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway warned that these leaks, because of their classified nature, could jeopardize national security. “What really should concern everyone are these leaks that imperil national security,” she said on “Fox and Friends.” “Leaking the phone calls between our president and other heads of state is nothing short of a national disgrace.”

While many Trump critics used the content of the exchanges to point out his political ineptitude, some Democrats joined in to warn that leaking a transcript of conversations between the president and other world leaders sets a dangerous and a bad precedent.

Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said, “A president of the United States [and a governor] would tell us they’ve got to be able to have confidential conversations, and I think it was disgraceful that those [came out].”

David Frum, a former aide in the George W. Bush White House who has been a Trump critic, wrote in The Atlantic a column decrying the leak as “unprecedented, shocking, and dangerous” and warned that it “will reverberate around the world.”

“No leader will again speak candidly on the phone to Washington, D.C. — at least for the duration of this presidency, and perhaps for longer,” Frum wrote. “If these calls can be leaked, any call can be leaked — and no leader dare say anything to the president of the United States that he or she would not wish to read in the news at home.”

Tommy Vietor, a former spokesperson for President Barack Obama’s National Security Council, also called the leak “absurd.”

“I would’ve lost my mind if transcripts of Obama’s calls to foreign leaders leaked,” Vietor, who co-hosts the popular liberal podcast “Pod Save America,” said on Twitter. “He wouldn’t have sounded so dumb, but it’s still absurd.”

David Axelrod, a former Obama advisor, said: “Transcripts of @POTUS calls w/leaders of Mexico; Australia were embarrassing. Yet the leaking of them feels like a terrible precedent.”

Attorney General Jeff Sessions agrees that leaks of classified information can hurt national security. The White House’s impatience with the leaks is growing, and the Trump administration is stepping up efforts to crack down on it.

On Friday, 08/04/2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a press conference that the Justice Department has “tripled the number of active leak investigations” and devoted new FBI resources to cracking down on leakers, adding that the department was reviewing its approach to subpoenaing journalists.

The leakers are using classified information in their misguided attempts to destroy the Trump presidency, but they have committed serious felonies in doing so.

Since there are only a small number of people with access to this information, it should not take Jeff Sessions long to detect who they are. This is the legal jeopardy they have placed themselves in:

Section 793 of the Espionage Act clearly states:

• It is a federal crime, punishable by imprisonment for up to 10 years, to disclose national defense information to someone who is not entitled to receive it.

• It is a federal crime, punishable by imprisonment for up to 10 years, to steal U.S. governmental secrets.

• It is a federal crime, punishable by imprisonment for up to 10 years, to disclose classified information relating to U.S. or foreign communications intelligence activities.

• It is a federal crime, punishable by imprisonment for up to 10 years, to acquire information by means of computer access without authorization or in excess of authorization.

• It is a federal crime, punishable by imprisonment for up to 15 years, to disclose the identity of a covert government agent, directly or indirectly.

• It is a federal crime to lie or otherwise obstruct a federal criminal investigation. The maximum sentence for such offenses varies from 5 to 20 years.

It is obvious from Section 793 that the individuals who have been leaking classified information to the news media are in violation of several of these statues, risking up to at least 10 years in prison on each count.

Former George W. Bush Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove said the White House leaks are originating from career government officials.

The Deep State has also been involved in the leaking of classified information. In July, the Republican-led Senate Homeland Security Committee released a report that found the Trump administration was being hit by national security leaks “on a nearly daily basis” and at a far higher rate than its predecessors encountered. After the report was issued, Trump’s son Donald Jr. wrote, “If there ever was confirmation that the Deep State is real, illegal & endangers national security, it’s this.”

The Deep State operates independently of elected officials in Washington. These individuals, who are members of the intelligence community, exercise power over both Republican and Democratic political leaders.

Even academics agree that there is a dual-state system in the United States. Tufts University international law professor Michael J. Glennon wrote that when George W. Bush was president, Obama campaigned against surveillance and security policies by the intelligence community in 2008. After Obama became president, however, he submitted to many of those policies, suggesting a national security network that has power over our duly elected leaders.

Former Whitewater Independent Counsel Robert Ray said it’s possible that some of the White House leaks have resulted from Trump’s combative relationship with intelligence agencies.

President Trump said, “I want the leaks from intelligence agencies, which are leaking like rarely have they ever leaked before, at a very important level. These are intelligence agencies we cannot have that happen.”

This has resulted in a new political scenario where conservatives, who used to be concerned about NSA surveillance abuse, are now complaining about intelligence leaks. Liberals, who used to condemn the CIA for its unaccountable power, have embraced the Deep State because they are hoping it might uncover dirt on the president sufficient for the Democrats to begin impeachment hearings against the president.


This article was written by Robert Steven Ingebo, president of FRI Corporation.