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Opinion
Noah Feldman

Why the White House Is Leakier Than Trump Tower

Government leakers know the prosecution risk is low, but corporate leakers can be bankrupted if they're caught.
Things are different here.

Things are different here.

Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
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President Donald Trump has threatened to prosecute leakers and bring in an outsider to review the intelligence agencies after reading unfavorable stories about his administration day after day in the news media. But he’s learning the hard way that there isn’t much he can do to stop government leaks.

That may surprise Trump, because in the private sector, the tools to stop leaking are generally pretty effective. It’s an anomaly of the legal system that in government, where the stakes are arguably higher than in business, it’s easier to get away with leaking.