President Donald Trump suggested Friday that it was “terrific” that the Department of Justice had caught senate aide James Wolfe leaking classified information to the media.
“It’s very interesting that they caught a leaker — it’s a very important leaker,” Trump said, noting that he was still getting more information about the case.
“It could be a terrific thing,” he said to reporters as he left the White House to travel to Canada for the G7 summit.
Trump said that he supported freedom of the press, but said that it was wrong to leak classified information.
“I think you have a double edge,” Trump said to reporters. “You cannot leak classified information. At the same time, we need freedom of the press.”
The Justice Department announced Thursday that James Wolfe was indicted for making false statements to the FBI that he did not share classified information with reporters. Wolfe engaged in repeated contacts with three separate reporters with encrypted messaging applications to share “non-public information, according to the department.
The information was discovered after the Justice Department raided phone and email records of New York Times reporter Ali Watkins about information passed to her while reporting for Buzzfeed.
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