Trump himself praised leakers during last year's presidential campaign — specifically the WikiLeaks revelations of embarrassing emails from Democrats close to presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. Intelligence officials said those leaks came courtesy of Russian hacking of Democratic Party officials during the election, the subject of ongoing investigations that include associates of Trump.
"Boy, I love reading those WikiLeaks," Trump said during a November campaign appearance in Wilmington, Ohio.
Former Trump adviser Roger Stone, one of those believed to be under investigation, rejected allegations he had contacts with Russian operatives during the presidential campaign, and welcomed any investigation.
"They’d be pretty bored if they wanted to look at my e-mails or transmissions because they won’t find anything of this nature," Stone told NBC's Today show. "I would like any fair, unbiased investigation so that we can clear the air on this once and for all.”
As for the current dispute over leaks, Stone echoed Trump officials in blaming holdovers from the Obama administration who are seeking to damage the current president. Said Stone to NBC: "The leaking that is coming out of the White House is a manifestation of the fact that there are people who have been hired who, very sadly, are not loyal to the president.”
On social media, Trump also attacked The New York Times' reporting on his administration.
"Leaking, and even illegal classified leaking, has been a big problem in Washington for years," Trump tweeted. "Failing @nytimes (and others) must apologize!"
Instead of failing, the Times has added subscribers since Trump's election.
Congressional Democrats said lawmakers should be investigating Flynn and the Trump administration's links to Russia overall, and many have saluted leakers for revealing facts about government actions.
