Rod Rosenstein led Trump's crackdown on leaks: report

Rod Rosenstein was deeply involved in President Donald Trump's war on leakers and whistleblowers, according to former Justice Department officials.

The Justice Department aggressively pursued cases under Rosenstein, who stepped down Friday as deputy attorney general, including charges last week against former intelligence analyst Daniel Everette Hale, who's accused of leaking classified information to reporters, reported The Daily Beast.

Hale is the seventh individual prosecuted for leak-related offenses, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

The Trump administrations has already prosecuted nearly as many leak as the Obama administration, which brought charges against 10 government employees and contractors over eight years.

"Under the Trump administration, agencies’ referrals of alleged leaks of classified information for consideration by the Justice Department have skyrocketed," The Daily Beast reported. "The Justice Department fielded an annual average of 104 referrals in the first two years of Trump’s presidency compared to an annual average of 39 under Obama."