Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly on Sunday called the intelligence leaks related to the Manchester, England attack “close to treason.”
During an interview on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Kelly said he doesn’t know where the leaks came from, but if they came from the U.S. it is “totally unacceptable.”
“And I don’t know why people do these kind of things, but it’s borderline, if not over the line, of treason,” he said during the interview.
When pressed on whether he believes it’s treason to leak some of this information, Kelly said: “I do believe it is.”
“I think it’s darn close to treason,” he said.
In a separate interview, Kelly called the leaks “outrageous.”
“I don’t know why people do it,” Kelly said on “Fox News Sunday.” “It jeopardizes not only investigations, but puts peoples’ lives in jeopardy. I don’t know why people do it but they do, and that’s the world we live in.”
Kelly’s comments came after a string of intelligence disclosures that angered some key U.S. allies.
{mosads}Police in Manchester said they would stop sharing information with their American counterparts after photos appearing to show remnants from the bomb were published by The New York Times.
The name of the alleged bomber was also published in U.S. news outlets before it was officially announced by U.K. authorities.
President Trump last week called for a federal investigation into the “deeply troubling” leaks of sensitive intelligence, including information related to last week’s suicide bombing in Manchester.
“The alleged leaks coming out of government agencies are deeply troubling,” Trump said in a statement, vowing his administration “will get to the bottom of this” because they “pose a grave threat to our national security.”
Trump asked the Justice Department to “launch a complete review of this matter, and if appropriate, the culprit should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”