White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci sent out a cryptic tweet Wednesday night that seemed to call out White House chief of staff Reince Priebus.
“In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony. I will be contacting @FBI and the @TheJusticeDept #swamp @Reince45,” Scaramucci’s tweet read.
After several political commentators and news websites speculated that Scaramucci may have been threatening Priebus in that message, Scaramucci tweeted again: “Wrong! Tweet was public notice to leakers that all Sr Adm officials are helping to end illegal leaks.”
He also deleted the original post:
Scaramucci’s initial message appeared to reference a Politico story published Wednesday that revealed details about his financial disclosure form.
The report claimed that Scaramucci earned $4.9 million from his stake in the investment firm SkyBridge Capital and a salary of more than $5 million between January 2016 and June 2017.
Scaramucci's social-media postings come amid long-playing rumors of turmoil with Priebus - and speculation that Priebus' job may be on the line now that Scaramucci is firmly in President Donald Trump's inner circle as the new White House communications director.
According to several reports, Priebus and former White House press secretary Sean Spicer were both vehemently against Scaramucci's hiring.
CNN contributor Ryan Lizza said Wednesday night that Scaramucci blamed Priebus "for blocking him at every turn" when he tried to get a job in the White House soon after Trump was elected.
Lizza said that Scaramucci tried to go around Priebus to talk to Trump about working in his administration, and later blamed Priebus "for cancelling three scheduled meetings with the president" before he was eventually hired as communications director.
Priebus has previously sought to downplay suggestions that he was at odds with Scaramucci. Priebus appeared on Fox News host Sean Hannity's program last week to say that rumors he and Scaramucci didn't "like each other" were untrue. In Scaramucci's first official appearance in front of the White House press corps last week, he said he and Priebus "are a little bit like brothers, where we rough each other up once in a while, which is totally normal for brothers."
Back to the leaks
CNN reporter Evan Perez threw cold water on Scaramucci's claim that leaks of his disclosure information were a felony, saying "financial disclosure forms are filed with the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) and are not classified."
Still, US Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores backed Scaramucci in a statement released Wednesday night:
"We have seen an astonishing increase in the number of leaks of classified national security information in recent months. We agree with Anthony that these staggering number of leaks are undermining the ability of our government to function and to protect this country.
"Like the Attorney General has said,'whenever a case can be made, we will seek to put some people in jail, and we will aggressively pursue leak cases wherever they may lead.'"
Trump has also publicly denounced leaks of unflattering revelations about his administration, which is deeply embroiled in a broad FBI investigation of Russia's meddling in the 2016 US election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.
Scaramucci's perceived social-media snipe at Priebus loosely resembled the types of attacks Trump has leveled against his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, over the past week.
Trump, in a series of tweets and public statements, has rhetorically strong-armed Sessions for recusing himself from the ongoing Russia investigation, calling him "beleaguered," and accusing him of taking a "very weak position" on matters involving his former Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. He left open Sessions ultimate fate within his administration on Tuesday, saying "time will tell" what happens next.