New White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci’s financial disclosure form was not the only thing that may have leaked to Politico. In addition to those, details about White House security access and credentials for Scaramucci during his time at the Export-Import Bank before he was named communications director at the White House were leaked to Politico.
A White House official told Breitbart News that this particular leak to Politico, regarding this section of the story on Scaramucci’s financial disclosure, is problematic. The section of the Politico piece describes how Scaramucci was able to regularly meet with President Donald Trump without the knowledge of White House chief of staff Reince Priebus. Priebus was unaware of Scaramucci’s hiring until after the move was made and reportedly vehemently opposed it.
“Ex-Im was seen as a ‘very temporary move,’ a way to get the Trump loyalist to Washington until a higher-level position could be found, according to one White House adviser,” Politico’s Lorraine Woellert wrote late Wednesday. “The bank is across the street from the White House, where Scaramucci was free to come and go, thanks to security credentials that gave him 24-hour access. That allowed him to elude the detection of senior White House staffers, including chief of staff Reince Priebus.”
That means somebody gave Politico White House security protocol and access details, something that may be very serious, several administration officials told Breitbart News.
The piece—to which Politico White House correspondent Josh Dawsey contributed—focused mostly on Scaramucci’s financial disclosure form. Scaramucci tweeted late Wednesday evening that he was going to seek an investigation from the FBI and Justice Department into what he believed was a “felony” leak of his financial disclosure form. In the tweet, he tagged Priebus—someone with whom he is at odds.
That has sparked significant speculation about a Priebus versus Scaramucci war looming:
Scaramucci deleted the tweet early Thursday and replaced it with another one that says an Axios report on the whole fiasco was wrong. It is not clear if his financial disclosure was leaked or obtained by Politico in the normal course of reporting. Politico’s reporter said that the Ex-Im Bank gave her the documents:
That still does nothing to calm flaring tensions between Scaramucci and Priebus over the leaks.
And this revelation that it was leaked that Scaramucci had round-the-clock access to the White House grounds and specific security credentials during his time at Ex-Im could be problematic for the dynamic, multiple White House sources informed Breitbart News. Only a handful of people would know the specific credentials of certain people, and this leak could endanger national security, White House officials say.
Scaramucci has not tweeted anything since, but he appeared on New Day on CNN with Chris Cuomo on Thursday morning and called out Priebus again.
“If Reince wants to explain that he’s not a leaker, let him do that,” Scaramucci said on CNN. “But let me tell you something about myself: I am a straight shooter. I’ll go right to the heart of the matter.”
Priebus has still not commented on this matter.
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