Trump Approved Staffer Phone Checks by Spicer

President Donald Trump approved of staffers having their cell phones checked for encrypted text messaging applications, CNN reports.

“I am told the president signed off personally that meeting last week with Sean Spicer deciding to ask some staffers to see their phones, to see if anyone of them were using apps like Signal and Confide, which basically allow you to send messages and they disappear," CNN’s Jeff Zeleny said on “The Lead” Monday.

“I am told that was sanctioned by the president, he knew about this, and it was a design to send a signal across this government entirely, not just in the White House, that they do not want leaks to happen... The bottom line is that the president is frustrated by this. And (White House Press Secretary) Sean Spicer, his role, among many, is to enforce what the president wants on these press reports here. So that’s why he had the meeting last week.”

Trump has expressed his anger with leaks coming out of his administration, and said he would crack down on where they were coming from.

Spicer last week did a random check of the phones of his communications staffers with White House lawyers in the room after he became aware that information had been disclosed out of a planning meeting with about 12 of his staff members.

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