Rep. Ron DeSantis: WikiLeaks Data Dump Might Be Worst Since Rosenbergs

This week's Wikileaks release of classified CIA material describing how the agency turns smart phones and television sets into spying devices could be "catastrophic" to the nation's security, Rep. Ron DeSantis tells Newsmax TV.

"This is potentially catastrophic and probably the most significant breach that I can remember," DeSantis said Wednesday to Steve Malzberg on "America Talks Live."

"I mean maybe you'd have to go back to the Rosenbergs with when they were providing the Soviet Union with the nuclear information that allowed [Soviet Union leader Joseph] Stalin to get the bomb," he added, referring to Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the New York City couple executed for espionage in 1953.

"And so we're going to have to figure it out, but the reports are just so, so troubling and that was one of the reasons why I was so upset when the [former President Barack Obama] pardoned Private [Chelsea] Manning."

Manning, a U.S. Army soldier court-martialed in 2013 for violations of the Espionage Act after giving Wikileaks hundreds of sensitive military and diplomatic documents, had been serving 35 years behind bars.

On Wednesday, CNN reported the latest Wikileaks dump will be investigated by federal authorities including the FBI and CIA. Officials have yet to determine how much of the release is accurate or if any have been altered before being released.

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