Obama is perfectly willing to leak for his own benefit, but heaven help the man who leaks and makes Dear Leader unhappy…
Via Fox:
The Obama administration has taken a first step toward opening a criminal investigation into the purported leaking of classified documents related to the federal government tracking Americans’ phone calls and emails, a source familiar with the high-level discussions told Fox News on Saturday.
The source said a “criminal report has been filed,” which begins the process.
The FBI and Justice Department would likely be involved in such a probe, which is expected to focus on British and U.S. newspapers including The Guardian. The British newspaper reported late Wednesday that the U.S. government had collected the phone records of millions of Verizon customers.
On Saturday, White House spokesman Ben Rhodes said the president is reviewing the situation to see what kind of damage might have been done.
“We’re still in early stages,” he said. However, Rhodes acknowledge the Justice Department would have to be involved and that the agency will discuss the matter with intelligence officials in the coming days.
Such an investigation typically starts when an agency files a complaint about a security breach, but it remains unclear whether the secretive National Security Agency, which led in the data-tracking to thwart terrorism, is involved in the filing.