Trump says the NSA and FBI are behind 'illegally' leaking
Donald Trump is pushing back against a growing chorus of suggestions that he and his aides had improper contact with the Russian government during his presidential campaign, saying malicious leakers inside the U.S. Intelligence Community touched off the scandal by talking to reporters.
'The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by "intelligence" like candy. Very un-American!' he tweeted.
The president faces accusations that he was needlessly sympathetic to Moscow, along with renewed suspicions that his foreign policy was informed by threats of blackmail from Vladimir Putin's government.
Scroll down for video
President Donald Trump, shown speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin last month, attacked his own intelligence agencies on Wednesday, blaming malicious leakers for the scandal that toppled his national security advisor
'The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by "intelligence" like candy. Very un-American!' Trump tweeted
He claimed Wednesday morning on Twitter that the firestorm surrounding former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn's ouster is a media conspiracy fueled by vengeful partisans inside U.S. intelligence agencies, and that the Obama administration – not his own – was 'soft on Russia.'
'Information is being illegally given to the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost by the intelligence community (NSA and FBI?),' Trump tweeted. 'Just like Russia.'
He claimed that '[t]his Russian connection non-sense [sic] is merely an attempt to cover-up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton's losing campaign.'
And in a jab at his predecessor, Trump wrote: 'Crimea was TAKEN by Russia during the Obama Administration. Was Obama too soft on Russia?'
Trump began his early morning tweet-storm with a swipe at cable TV hosts from the two networks he loves to hate.
The president hat-tipped reporter Eli Lake, who told a Fox News Channel audience about banana republic'-type leaks from inside the Intelligence Community
Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn resigned Monday night following a steady media drumbeat that Trump says was fueled by selective leaks from inside the FBI and NSA
Trump claimed media 'conspiracies' and 'blind hatred' from reporters, saying MSNBC and CNN are treating him un
'The fake news media is going crazy with their conspiracy theories and blind hatred,' he wrote.
'@MSNBC & @CNN are unwatchable. @foxandfriends is great!'
Trump singled out one Fox News Channel guest for praise – national security journalist Eli Lake.
'Thank you to Eli Lake of The Bloomberg View - "The NSA & FBI...should not interfere in our politics...and is" Very serious situation for USA,' he tweeted.
Lake appeared Tuesday night on the Fox News 'Hannity' show. 'Fox & Friends' replayed a clip on Wednesday morning that included the quotes in Trump's tweet.
He argued that Trump is the victim of malicious leaks from inside the U.S. Intelligence Community, and suggested that partisan Obama administration holdovers are to blame.
The president praised one Bloomberg reporter and suggested that the Obama administration, not his own, was 'too soft on Russia'
'This is the kind of thing that happens in banana republics, when the national police will go after a political leader that they don't like, and using these extraordinary powers,' Lake said.
'We trust the NSA and the FBI to use these powers to catch criminals and terrorists, but that should not interfere in our politics. And that stuff is interfering right now in our politics.'
Trump may not have read Lake's column that led Fox News to book him on the 'Hannity' program.
Lake wrote that he was skeptical of the White House's official explanation for Flynn's resignation – that he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about conversations he had in December with Russia's ambassador to the U.S.
'[F]or a White House that has such a casual and opportunistic relationship with the truth, it's strange that Flynn's "lie" to Pence would get him fired. It doesn't add up,' he wrote.