#Mark Meadows feeding information to staffers to identify leakers: report

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows has told several staffers that he has been feeding specific pieces of information to possible leakers to figure out who is divulging to the media, according to a new report.

Meadows has been “unusually vocal” about his tactics to weed out those acting as news sources, Axios reported Sunday, leaving many White House staffers feeling on edge.

“Meadows told me he was doing that,” one former White House official said, adding, “I don’t know if it ever worked.”

The former House Freedom Caucus chairman has been on the hunt for leakers since taking the job in March, as President Trump tasked him with stopping leaks as part of the position, the outlet reports.

Recently, identifying the leakers has become more of a priority, as the commander-in-chief is furious about two recent leaks of sensitive information.

The first leak was related to a report on Russia paying the Taliban to kill US troops in Afghanistan; the second was that the Secret Service rushed him down to the White House bunker while protests erupted outside.

Meadows has also reduced the number of large senior staff meetings down to just once a week, Politico reports, citing his effort to clamp down on press leaks.

The outlet also reports that Meadows pitched himself as someone who could get a handle on leaks when the president was considering him to replace former acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, who also struggled to keep leaks under control.

Meadows has yet to identify any of the high profile leakers, however a source familiar with the situation told Axios that he is “focused on national security leaks and could care less about the palace intrigue stories.”