The chairman of the powerful House Intelligence Committee told Fox News that security leaks out of the Obama administration have not stopped despite an internal probe, and that President Obama has not done enough to turn off the spigot.
Without providing specifics about the new leaks, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said the damaging release of sensitive information continues.
“We’ve seen more leaks, absolutely,” Rogers told Fox News in an interview Monday. “This is an opportunity for the president to be bold, to take a stand, to step up and say, ‘My administration will cooperate fully and that my staff ... should not and will not participate in coordinated or uncoordinated leaking of classified information for any reason. It's a crime.'"
Rogers, following up on criticisms of the leaks made last week by Dianne Feinstein, ithe Democratic chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Rogers agreed that human intelligence assets had been comprised.
“We know that sources have self selected out of cooperation around the world,” Rogers explained. “We know that operations have had to change. We know that operations have had to shut down.”
Based on the work by his committee investigators, the congressman joined other Republicans by claiming that the classified information came from a small group of people who have access to the White House.
“It is very clear that somebody who had access to White House situation room, had very senior covert action classified material was responsible for some of these leaks," he said. "That is not a big group of people."
On the level of cooperation from the White House, Rogers suggested it was lacking.
“I don't feel comfortable today that this administration has made every person available when the investigator needs to talk to them and the records they need to provide in a timely way. I'm not comfortable yet," Rogers said.
A congressional staffer told Fox News on Monday that the White House had yet to respond to a July 12 letter from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, who told President Obama he’d like to interview seven current and former administration officials who may know something about a spate of national security leaks.
The request follows suggestions by lawmakers a day earlier that they’re interested in potentially pursuing a congressional investigation into the leaks, on top of the Department of Justice-led probe.
“Concern about these leaks knows no party line. When national security secrets leak and become public knowledge, our people and our national interests are jeopardized. And when our enemies know our secrets, American lives are threatened,” Smith said in a letter to the president.
The administration officials he'd like to interview are National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism John Brennan, Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough, Director for Counterterrorism Audrey Tomason and National Security Adviser to the Vice President Antony Blinken.
The White House did not respond to Fox News's request Monday for comment for this story.
And last Thursday, the White House downplayed comments by David Axelrod, Obama's top political strategist, who said the president didn't leak anything, then followed up by saying the president did not authorize the leaks.
“All those statements are completely true," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said. "I stand by what I've said and what Mr. Axelrod and the president said. What I can tell you is that there are investigations ongoing, and I'm not going to comment on the specifics of the investigations.”
