'Guilty of treason': Trump orders DOJ to investigate 'anonymous' staffer from first term
President Donald Trump ordered the Department of Justice to investigate Miles Taylor, a member of his first administration who wrote a New York Times op-ed under the pseudonym "Anonymous" claiming to be a member of the so-called resistance.
"What this presidential memorandum is going to do, one, it's going to strip any active clearance that he has in light of his past activities involving classified information," White House staff secretary Will Scharf explained as he handed the executive order to the president. "It's also going to order the Department of Justice to investigate his activities to see what else might come up in that context, given his egregious behavior during your previous administration."
For his part, Trump accused Taylor of saying "terrible things."
"And I think it's like a traitor. It's like spying. He walks into the office. He's supposed to be sitting here," he explained. "And he wrote a book, Anonymous, and I always thought it was terrible. And now we have a chance to find out whether or not it was terrible."
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"And if it was a Democrat president, I'd say that's a terrible thing," the president claimed. "And it's time to find out whether or not somebody can do that. Can they write a book about very confidential meetings? Because I happen to be one of a lot of people in a room, and they go out and write a book. And worse than that, call it anonymous, like it's a big deal."
"And I think he's guilty of treason, if you want to know the truth. But we'll find out. And I assume we're recommending this to the Department of Justice."