Washington: President Donald Trump lashed out once again at US intelligence agencies, targeting the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) over leaks that have hobbled his administration.
Mr Trump's latest attack – via his preferred medium of Twitter – came amid reports the FBI had refused a White House request to deny the Trump team had pre-inauguration contact with Russian officials.
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Trump meets CIA employees, pledges support
President Donald Trump is telling CIA employees whose work he has publicly doubted that no one feels stronger about the intelligence community than he does.
"The FBI is totally unable to stop the national security 'leakers' that have permeated our government for a long time," Mr Trump tweeted on Friday morning.
"They can't even find the leakers within the FBI itself. Classified information is being given to media that could have a devastating effect on US. FIND NOW."
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His comments came after CNN reported on Thursday that White House officials had asked the FBI to deny media stories about links between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.
The FBI refused the request, which broke with protocol governing communications with the law enforcement agency regarding pending investigations, according to CNN.
Citing unnamed sources, the report said that White House chief of staff Reince Priebus asked an FBI official to publicly discredit news stories that said Mr Trump's campaign and its associates had repeated contact with Russian officials in the year leading up to the November election.
A White House official later told the network that the request was only made after the FBI indicated to administration officials that it didn't believe the reports to be accurate.
The administration official, who requested anonymity to discuss internal conversations between the White House and the FBI, said that the bureau's deputy director, Andrew McCabe, instigated the discussion on February 15, the day after the New York Times published a report on contacts between Trump campaign aides and Russian officials.
Mr McCabe asked Mr Priebus for extra time at the end of an unrelated meeting at the White House, the official said, and then told the White House chief of staff that the FBI didn't consider the Times report to be accurate.
Mr Priebus then asked Mr McCabe if he could say so publicly. Mr McCabe said he'd consider it, then called Mr Priebus back later and declined, saying the FBI didn't want to criticise journalists, the official said.
FBI Director Jim Comey contacted the White House the same day and also discredited the story, but declined to take a public stance, according to the official. Mr Priebus asked Mr Comey if the White House could say publicly that intelligence officials had assured him the report was inaccurate, and Mr Comey agreed.
The official declined to say whether the Trump campaign had any contacts with Russian officials, referring those questions to the FBI.
A second administration official, who also requested anonymity, said there was nothing inappropriate about Mr Priebus's communication with the FBI over public affairs issues. Mr Priebus was discussing media coverage, not the ongoing investigation, the official said.
The FBI is totally unable to stop the national security "leakers" that have permeated our government for a long time. They can't even......
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 24 February 2017
find the leakers within the FBI itself. Classified information is being given to media that could have a devastating effect on U.S. FIND NOW
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 24 February 2017
Mr Trump has repeatedly attacked members of the intelligence community, blaming the FBI and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for leaks and negative news stories.
In several Twitter posts since being elected president, Mr Trump has put the word "intelligence" in quotation marks. In a Twitter post last month, Mr Trump compared the intelligence community to Nazi Germany.
Mr Trump told reporters this month that the US would find those leaking negative information about his administration.
"They're going to pay a big price," he said.
Bloomberg