Following the latest leak coming from his own administration, President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday that the attorney general should be investigating the matter.
The New York Times published an anonymous op-ed Wednesday purportedly penned by a senior official within the administration. In the piece, the author wrote that he or she is not alone in working against President Trump as an insider.
The author said, "I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations," and went on to give an example claiming that aides had to twist Trump's arm to get him to issue sanctions against Russia.
Despite numerous public calls for the mysterious author to reveal his identity, the writer has not yet come forward. The Times has vowed to protect his anonymity so as not to jeopardize the official's job.
From Air Force One on Friday, the president told reporters, "I think it is national security. I would say Jeff [Sessions] should be investigating who the author of that piece is because I really believe it is national security," Bloomberg reported.
When asked whether he was considering taking action against the Times, Trump said, "We're going to see, I'm looking at that right now.
"We're going to take a look at what he had, what he gave, what he's talking about also where he is right now," the president added, presumably referring to the author of the piece, according to the Times.
Trump also said that if the individual who wrote the op-ed has a high-level security clearance, "I don't want him in those meetings."
This isn't the first time Trump has considered taking legal action against the Times. As a presidential candidate, Trump threatened to sue the paper for libel after it published an article featuring two women who accused him of touching them inappropriately several years prior.
Responding to the lawsuit threat, the Times wrote to Trump's attorney Marc Kasowitz at the time: "We welcome the opportunity to have a court set him [Trump] straight."
