The media is protected by the First Amendment, but that doesn't give it unlimited power to publish absolutely anything it wants to, Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to President Trump, told Newsmax TV on Monday.
Echoing Attorney General Jeff Sessions' warning that the press needs to restrain itself in publishing leaked classified information, or face the music in court.
"A free press is one of the pillars of a democracy of a free society but even for journalists there have to be limits. The idea that there are no limits on journalists, what does that mean? Does that mean that the New York Times and CNN can publish our launch codes? No, of course not," Gorka told Rita Cosby, guest host of Newsmax's "The Todd Schnitt Show."
"A free press is essential to a free society, but that does not mean you are completely immune from the laws that pertain to the national security of all Americans."
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He said he is encouraged that efforts by Sessions and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly to the ongoing flow of leaks to the media from the White House will pay off.
"Having spent a long meeting with Attorney General Sessions on Friday and then hearing Gen. Kelly address all the employees in the Eisenhower Executive Building – that's next to the West Wing – yes I am [encouraged]," he said.
"In the first five months of this administration we've had 62 national security leaks in comparison to the first five months of the Obama administration that had eight leaks in the first five months of the Bush administration that had nine leaks. This is outrageous, it endangers all Americans and we will stop it."
Gorka, a counterinsurgency and counterterrorism expert, is the author of "Defeating Jihad: The Winnable War."
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