The people within the White House who are leaking information, such as the transcripts of phone conversations between President Donald Trump and leaders of Mexico and Australia, are probably people the president trusts, former Michigan GOP Rep. Pete Hoekstra said on Newsmax TV's "The Joe Pags Show" Friday.
"It's just a close-knit group of people you have to almost think that this is somebody that inherently the president may trust and would believe that the person is loyal to him and to the country and to the law. And, it's clear that they are not," said Hoekstra, who served as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.
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Hoekstra said the result of the latest leak on Thursday of the phone transcripts would mean world leaders would be "more cautious in the types of discussions they have with our president."
However, the revelations of the phone transcripts, published Thursday by The Washington Post, contained a positive byproduct, Hoekstra maintained.
"I think the positive thing here is that Republicans and Democrats are all condemning these leaks because they all recognized whether you like Donald Trump or not this is not the way that a super power should operate," he said.
Hoekstra also explained when he served as House Intelligence chair, The New York Times had information that could seriously affect U.S. security, but that lawmakers met with Times representatives prior to the story being published.
"(The New York Times) came in, they met with us, they met with a gang of four, the top leaders on the Intel committees in both the House and the Senate," Hoekstra said.
"We explained to them in a unified front, Republicans and Democrats, saying this leaking or printing this information, disclosing this information will do serious harm to our national security and to the specific programs that were essential at that time. And, The New York Times did not publish. They held back," he added.
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