The Trump administration is obsessed with leaks, and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt is going to extreme lengths to combat them. When he ordered all his employees to attend a mandatory class on leak prevention, the result was just what you would have expected.
Last month, as Grist reports with evident glee, “workers at the federal agency attended a one-hour training course on how to prevent leaks to the press. In response, they disclosed memos and slide shows from the course to multiple outlets, including The Hill, Reuters, and the Associated Press. Politico received a leaked memo about the class before it even took place.”
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According to Reuters, the first slide in the presentation warned employees that “the unauthorized disclosure of classified information or controlled unclassified information (CUI) harms our nation and shakes the confidence of the American people.”
Next, employees were shown “a clip of an announcement by Attorney General Jeff Sessions on August 4 that the Justice Department would crack down on leakers,” as well as another of U.S. National Counterintelligence Executive William Evanina explaining to Fox News “why leaks are dangerous to national security.”
Ladies and gentlemen of the EPA, may we just say: we’d love to hear from you any time. Just use our handy contact form.
O gawd – this is brilliant Mitchell! Gives me hope for our American brothers and sisters.
I can just see it: ” I know this is an important workshop, but ‘scuse me I gotta make a leak.” Then they post cell phone pics of the slides!!
oh help! I’m gonna pee myself! You just made my day!