Trump officers use polygraphent tests to rinse smaller leaks even

Washington (Reuters) – When reports in the media appeared that the federal government's staff office was intended to hire a driver for promoting agency directors, the officials quickly ceased an investigation to find out who entered the press in the press, three people who were familiar with the matter.

The attitude of a driver in the Office of Personnel Management hardly qualified as a classified or highly secret information: An official from the agency joked to a colleague in a message found by Reuters that the information should be made public in order to finally advertise the position.

The plans to hire a driver – first reported by Reuters – proved for OPM and the White House at a time when the agency cited the efforts of the Ministry of Government Efficiency to lower the federal employee and cut hundreds of its own employees.

The incident underlines President Donald Trump's determination to act against Lecks for the press, even those who concern non -classified information or the daily work of the government.

Reuters spoke to nine current and former employees of the federal government under the current administration, which described concerted efforts in order to uncover leaks of all kinds.

The investigation has a double purpose – leaks, while they also apply to state employees for Trump's political agenda, said four of the government employees.

“President Trump has made it clear that he will not tolerate that the Federal Government employees lead to the fake news media. This is common sense,” said Karoline Leavitt, spokesman for the White House, in a statement to Reuters.

“Government employees who spend their time to lead the media instead of doing the work that American taxpayers expect should be held accountable.”

In several government agencies – including the Department of Homeland Security, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Defense – the employees informed employees that they would have to go through lying detect site tests or polygraph after not classified information in the media was reported, Six government workers said Reuters.

The results of polygraph are rarely used as evidence in US courts due to doubts about their reliability.

At the DHS, the managers informed the employees that they had to undergo the tests – not necessarily because LECKS had occurred, but due to the suspicion that, according to four government workers, the employees may speak to the press.

The DHS employees were also informed that they could be released if they did not take off the tests, the four said.

Participant polygraphed

After details on a DHS meeting in March, in which the secretary of the home protection authority, Kristi NoEM, and the then incumbent Fema administrator Cameron Hamilton had taken part in the press, ordered DHS managers to take part in at least four session. Fema is part of DHS.

The participants, including Hamilton, sat at the headquarters of the Security Administration Transportation in Virginia for polygraphs.

A FEMA employee in the public affair department was paid after a polygraph had not risen conclusively, the two former FEMA said, although it was unclear whether the test was bound to the meeting.

The employee of Reuters rejected it to make a comment.

A DHS employee informed Reuters that they had resigned when they were asked to carry out a polygraphent test because they feared that they were incorrectly accused of the leak.

The DHS workers were asked to sign non-open-ending agreements on the tests, said the employee.

When the DHS was asked, the DHS said that it was “not apologetically” about the drive to eradicate leak. “We are agnostic in terms of their position, their term, their political appointment or their status as a career officer – we will track down leaks and pursue them in full of the law,” a DHS spokesman told Reuters.

OPM did not answer a request for comments. The DOD said in March that it would use polygraphent tests to uncover leaks.

It is generally not a criminal matter to lick information – unless they are classified or protected in other ways, including national security leaks that can bring people in the way in this way.

Some leaks – including those of non -classified information – can be in the interests of the public, say historians and political experts. The information can also frustrate the political agenda of a president and make a government less effective, added.

“Not all leaks are helpful for peace, good government and constitutional freedom,” said historian Timothy Naftali, former director of the Nixon Presidential Library in California.

“Turn every stone up”

Apart from the employees, the administration also applies for greater access to the records of journalists. In April, the US Ministry of Justice facilitated the prosecutors who examined leaks for the media in order to substitute records and statements by journalists.

The guideline by General Prosecutor Pam Bondi raised the department directive during the administration of President Joe Biden, who explained the public prosecutor's office from the confiscation of the telephone and e -mail records of the reporter, unless the journalist was a suspect in a criminal investigation that had nothing to do with Newsgathering, or they had received information from criminal methods.

New regulations enable the prosecutors to use the public prosecutors in criminal investigations, lectures, court commands and search commands in order to force “information and certificates through and in relation to members of the news media”, according to a memo from Bondi.

Gabe Rottman, Vice President of Politics at the Press Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said that the memo's reference to non-classified leaks indicated that the guidelines were shifted.

“This is a fairly pronounced contrast to the leak change under the first Trump government, in which, for example, the speech by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, in which a leak-raid was announced, was rather geared towards national security leaks.”

Critics of the Trump administration say that leak examinations are a politicized instrument to exterminate the perceived infidelity.

“The Trump White House is trying to make a very clear point here: they will turn every stone and use every tool to destroy all the leaks that they do not approve,” said Brad Moss, a lawyer for national security in Washington.

In each of the four years, the first Trump administration referred more media leak for criminal investigations than in the past 15 years, as received from the Ministry of Justice of the project on state supervision, a non -participating watchdog group.

Both parties have tried to contain the flow of information. The democratic President Barack Obama had followed more leakage cases than all previous presidents, according to Rottman, which was compiled by Rottman by the Press's Reporters for Freedom of the Press.

Trump followed six leak cases when he left the office after an term and had him surpass him, according to Rottman Obama's record. (This story was reproduced with a new heading)

(Reporting by Marisa Taylor, Ted Hesson and Alexandra Alper in Washington and Helen Coster in New York; additional reporting by Nandita Bose and Sarah N. Lynch in Washington. Editing of Paul Thomasch and Suzanne Goldenberg)