The White House is now checking staff cell phones

[Artemus]

Sean Spicer checked not only government issued to his staff, but also personal cell phones to try to track down the links. The following shows you how successful it was:

Spicer asked to review both his staff's government-issued and personal cell phones, the sources said. He also specifically asked his staff not to leak information about the meeting or his efforts to crack down on leaks to the media, one source said.

I nearly wet myself reading that one. I'm sure the legal experts will weigh in on the legality of searching personal phones without a warrant. (I think it is probably legal since I agreed to turn over my phone at any request when I had access to a secure area.)

ETA: The original report is on Politico.

 

[untermensche]

It's a circus.

The Keystone Cops have taken over the Executive.

 

[laughing dog]

This is really stupid. Anyone who wants to leak information will just get a burner phone and not carry with them to work.

 

[James Brown]

Or they will now.

I wonder if things like this will make it more likely, or less likely, for a staffer to anonymously leak the White House's dirty laundry.

 

[Keith&Co.]

This is really stupid.

It's always seemed to me that the measure of a leader is how far his staff (or division, or department, or crew) will go to cover his ass.
I've worked for men i'd have taken a bullet for, and I've worked for men i wouldn't warn if a bus was headed for them.

Spicer sounds like... I'd park the bus on a hill so i could run down and help throw him in front of it.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Or they will now.

I wonder if things like this will make it more likely, or less likely, for a staffer to anonymously leak the White House's dirty laundry.

More. Much more.
You gotta figure, right now half of them are at their favorite after hours drinking place, tipping beers and sharing 'Okay, if you were going to leak to CNN, how would YOU do it and get away with it?' ideas.
And even those who never planned to leak right up to today are getting tips on how they WILL do it when they're finally pushed that far.

 

[Keith&Co.]

A couple things occurred to me as i took out the trash.

First off, the silliness of a leak crackdown to stop Trump's 'fake news'
Can you really LEAK 'fake news?' Fake news is made-up shit. Leaks are real items that show up where they shouldn't. The two are mutually exclusive. Being upset about a leak seems to be confirming that it IS news, just news you'd really rather have kept under wraps.


And the other,
I wonder if anyone in the WH is smart enough to tell only a few people a juicy tidbit, to see who leaks it? Jack Ryan did it in a Tom Clancy novel, phrasing the juicier bits of classified information in unique verbiage so they could track the source.
Of course, in this WH, there's a good chance that the whole 'unique juicy tidbits' story will be leaked instead of individual tids...

 

[Bronzeage]

Took them long enough. They have the services of the world's most sophisticated security services and they just figured out that cell phones can be used to leak information.

 

[Mumbles]

Took them long enough. They have the services of the world's most sophisticated security services and they just figured out that cell phones can be used to leak information.

Well, Trump's still carrying around that old Android phone, as I recall, instead of the secure phone that he'd be provided by Secret Service. But checking cell phones would be fairly useless for communications staff - although leaking the fact that they're being checked would serve as a very nice warning for those outside the White House.

 

[bilby]

To quote Bernard Woolley in Yes, Prime Minister:

That's another of those irregular verbs, isn't it? I give confidential press briefings; You leak; He is being charged under section 2A of the Official Secrets Act.

 

[Elixir]

Did they intentionally leak the news that they're desperately scrambling to stop leaks, or was that a leak?
This clown circus doesn't know its ass from an elephant.

 

[ideologyhunter]

But it's still a fine-tuned machine, innit???

 

[Tom Sawyer]

I love the way this is being handled. All of the information in the news is fake and you can't believe any of it but we're going to do all these extra security checks to find out who's been telling the news what's really going on.

 

[funinspace]

This is really stupid. Anyone who wants to leak information will just get a burner phone and not carry with them to work.

Yep! Can't imagine that a burner phone wasn't already on the minds of anyone willing to spill the internal beans of this circus...

 

[Elixir]

This is really stupid. Anyone who wants to leak information will just get a burner phone and not carry with them to work.

Yep! Can't imagine that a burner phone wasn't already on the minds of anyone willing to spill the internal beans of this circus...

Obviously Cheato needs all his vassals to take an oath of fealty, then outlaw the possession of any phone or other electronic device not issued by and remotely monitored by his trusted inner circle.
Oh wait - he doesn't have a trusted inner circle beyond Stevie and the kids... Oh well. I guess he's fucked.

 

[funinspace]

Oh well. I guess he's fucked.

Only on the weekends...well unless it otherwise leaks out

 

[marc]

But it's still a fine-tuned machine, innit???

Fine-tuned and reliable as an oil pipeline.

 

[Mumbles]

But it's still a fine-tuned machine, innit???

Compared to the difficulties this admin has had just filling basic posts, this is fairly minor.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

But it's still a fine-tuned machine, innit???

Compared to the difficulties this admin has had just filling basic posts, this is fairly minor.

And they think they can hire 10,000 federal agents for Immigration over night.

 

[Elixir]

Compared to the difficulties this admin has had just filling basic posts, this is fairly minor.

And they think they can hire 10,000 federal agents for Immigration over night.

Well, they should just hire all the illegal immigrants they rounded up. They probably know more about illegal immigration than any neophyte ICE agent.