Anthony Scaramucci sent a cryptic tweet that seemed to threaten Reince Priebus
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.
Scaramucci appears to reference a story of an alleged financial disclosure that was reported by Politico earlier Wednesday.
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 from the Export-Import Bank in 2016.
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Scaramucci's tweet comes amid long-playing rumors of turmoil between Scaramucci and 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.
Priebus and former White House press secretary Sean Spicer were both vehemently against Scaramucci's hiring.
CNN reporter Evan Perez threw cold water on Scaramucci's apparent veiled threat over his disclosure forms, 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 said in a statement 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.'"
CNN contributor Ryan Lizza also 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."
Several political commentators noted that Scaramucci tweeted his statement after he had dinner with Trump, first lady Melania, Fox News host Sean Hannity, and former Fox News executive Bill Shine at the White House Wednesday night, prompting speculation about what may have been discussed.
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Scaramucci's apparent social-media snipe at Priebus resembles the type of attacks Trump has aimed at 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.
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