Eli Lake, Columnist

Separating Fact From Innuendo in the Flynn Fiasco

The former national security adviser may not have broken any laws. But those who leaked against him committed a chilling abuse of power.

February 17, 2017 at 10:00 AM UTC

By Eli Lake

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

On his own now.
Photographer: Win McNamee

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After getting a lot of flak over my last column on the political assassination of Michael Flynn, I'd like to clear something up about national security leaks. I am in favor of them. What's more, I oppose the rigorous enforcement of the outmoded laws meant to protect state secrets, particularly if that involves monitoring or investigating reporters.

The issue with the ouster of Flynn as national security adviser is not the mishandling of classified information, despite some of President Donald Trump's tweets about it. It's about Flynn's detractors selectively disclosing to the public the communications of U.S. officials, and how this represents a chilling abuse of power.