Jeff Sessions: the Department of Justice is investigating the leak of Michael Flynn’s phone call

  Earlier in the week we learned that Jeff Sessions has ordered the Department of Justice Inspector General to investigate the alleged abuse of FISA warrants to spy on the Trump campaign, and we also learned that it was Andrew McCabe who authorized the leaking of information about the ongoing investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email scandal. A Department of Justice Inspector General report is expected to “criticize” Andrew McCabe for this.

  In other words, nothing meaningful is going to happen to Andrew McCabe and because an Inspector General is going to investigate the abuse of FISA warrants we can expect the same–maybe a tersely worded condemnation with no action behind it.

  Today Jeff Sessions announced in an interview that the Department of Justice was going to investigate the illegal leaking of the contents of a phone call between Michael Flynn and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak, as well as 27 other leaks. Here is more:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a recent interview that he was investigating who illegally leaked former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn’s phone calls to the media.

Asked specifically by Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo if his office was investigating the leak, he responded: “That is a violation of the law, to leak classified documents, and it is being investigated.”

Last August, Sessions stood up a task force dedicated to investigating leaks. He did not indicate during the recent interview when anything might be announced, but said the leaks are being investigated “aggressively.”

“I will say this, the last two years before I became Attorney General there were – each year there were three open investigations of classified leaks. Now we have 27, we’re going after this aggressively. I am directing it personally. Some of the matters involve this matter and some of it is a matter I am not recused on and we’re pursuing it aggressively,” he said during the interview earlier this month.

  Unlike the investigations into the FISA abuses and the leaking authorized by Andrew McCabe these investigations look like they are being conducted by Jeff Sessions directly and not through an Inspector General so maybe, just maybe, something will come from this.

  Judging by recent history I am not confident anything will come from this, but part of me is hopeful that Jeff Sessions is more active behind the scenes than we think and has been holding his cards close to his vest.

malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium