FBI Director Kash Patel is expanding the administration's probe into how security vulnerabilities of President Donald Trump's Qatar-gifted Air Force One jet leaked to The New York Times — and Secret Service agents are now in the crosshairs.
According to The Times, the FBI "has sought to speak with several people who traveled aboard the Qatari-gifted plane that President Trump flew on to Turkey last week, including asking some to turn over their mobile phones," and among those being grilled are the Secret Service agents who flew with the president to the summit.
The Secret Service has declined comment and ordered personnel "to refer any outside requests to their lawyers," per the report.
"Administration officials have said that the investigation, which is being led personally by Kash Patel, the FBI director, and the White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is aimed at identifying anyone who shared information about security concerns related to the new Air Force One, which was the subject of two Times articles last week," said the report. One person close to the White House told The Times leaks "that jeopardize the safety of the president, his staff and the traveling press pool are dangerous and a threat to national security" and the White House will do everything it can to root them out.
All of this, ironically, put Trump's nominee for Director of National Intelligence, Jay Clayton, in the doghouse because, as the current U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, he was responsible for issuing subpoenas in the leak investigation, and the investigation itself then leaked.
The first inklings of the probe were revealed last week when Patel was abruptly pulled off a planned leisure trip to see his girlfriend perform at a music festival in Chicago to come speak at the White House. At the time, sources thought it might be to rebuke him for his erratic behavior in public.