In a White House press briefing, Sean Spicer spoke resolutely about the administration’s hard stance against leakers without addressing the WikiLeaks cache. He focuses on explaining that the Trump Administration has every intention of punishing leakers. “We will go after people who leak classified information; we will prosecute them to the full extent of the law. […] Playing with our nation’s national security is not something that should be taken lightly under this administration.”
Later in the same press briefing when asked specifically about this latest WikiLeaks release, Spicer said, “It is an allegation. It is something that we are not going to confirm at this time, but as you can imagine from the President’s previous comments, he is extremely concerned about this—about these allegations, about the potential that something, if this were true, would have on our national security.”
Intelligence officials have told The Washington Post that the CIA was aware that someone had absconded with classified information even before WikiLeaks made their release. However, WikiLeaks promises more to come, and journalists question their true motivation.
