On Wednesday, House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff told reporters that Trump wants to suggest whistleblowers “are somehow treasonous and should be treated as traitors and spies.” In fact, it was former President Barack Obama who waged war on leakers, prosecuting more than under all former presidents combined, according to Breitbart News.
Democrats have attacked Trump for lambasting intelligence community information leakers who triggered the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry as spies. But as the Washington Post noted, “Trump rages about leakers. Obama quietly prosecuted them.”
“Until Obama took power, the government had almost entirely reserved the Espionage Act for spies,” Breitbart reports. Obama prosecuted at least eight leakers under the Espionage Act. The Obama administration also retaliated against whistleblowers such as those linked to the Operation Fast and Furious scandal.
As of late June, Trump’s administration had indicted only three potential leakers under the Espionage Act.