Donald Trump says US Attorney General Jeff Sessions should investigate op-ed author out of ‘national security’ concern
‘Eventually the name of this sick person will come out,’ says Trump, referring to the anonymous writer of ‘The New York Times’ opinion piece on his administration
US President Donald Trump has said he wants Attorney General Jeff Sessions to determine the author of an anonymous New York Times op-ed that claimed top officials in the administration are working to thwart presidential actions they consider misguided.
“I think it is national security. I would say Jeff should be investigating who the author of that piece is because I really believe it is national security,” Trump told reporters travelling with him on Air Force One on Friday.
In response, Sessions’s spokeswoman, Sarah Isgur Flores, said only that “the department doesn’t confirm or deny investigations”.
Watch: Trump slams NYT’s op-ed as ‘gutless’
Asked if the government would take legal action against The New York Times for publishing the essay that it said was written by a “senior official in the Trump administration”, the president responded that his administration was “looking at that right now”. He added: “Eventually the name of this sick person will come out.”
In a statement on Friday afternoon, theTimes said it was “confident the Department of Justice understands that the First Amendment protects all American citizens and that it would not participate in such a blatant abuse of government power.”
The essay, which said some of Trump’s closest advisers work in secret to thwart his “more misguided impulses until he is out of office”, has enraged the president.
He said in tweets that the newspaper must turn over the writer to the government “for National Security purposes” and asked, “TREASON?”