RantCrush Top 5: March 31, 2017

Yesterday, the New York Times revealed that the sources who gave Representative Devin Nunes the information that President Trump and his aides were incidentally caught up in surveillance reports came from the White House. Nunes has refused to name his sources, referring to them as whistleblowers. He has said he needs to protect them so that others will be comfortable anonymously reporting any info they have. He also insinuated that they revealed the information at great risk to themselves, but that claim now feels a bit questionable.

Several officials have confirmed that the “secret sources” are the senior director for intelligence at the National Security Council, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, and a lawyer who works on national security issues in the White House Counsel’s Office, Michael Ellis. Ellis also used to be a lawyer for Nunes’s committee. Yesterday, Press Secretary Sean Spicer also refused to confirm or deny the information and called it an “obsession with who talked to whom, and when.” If Nunes’s purpose was to distract from the other Russian investigations, he seems to have succeeded.

Devin Nunes’ alleged White House sources have nothing to say: https://t.co/qO7fZDWcjn

— Axios (@axios) March 31, 2017

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.