Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “Your World,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told host Neil Cavuto it was his view that if it were a U.S. intelligence agency that leaked an unsubstantiated dossier on President-elect Donald Trump and his relationship with Russia to the press, there should be repercussions, including prosecution and possible jail time.
“What I would say is that if there is private information that someone is blackmailing a public figure and the public figure or someone takes it to the intelligence agencies, you would think it would be private. And really, this is so important that I think whoever leaked it should be prosecuted. Someone should go to jail if this was an intelligence agency head talked to the media, they should go to jail. If it was the Obama administration, they should go to jail.”
Paul offered his reason, saying such blackmail efforts may go unreported in the future.
“The reason is you don’t want your public figures succumbing to blackmail. Now he’s saying the information is false and I have to rely on his word on that. But let’s say any public official is being blackmailed. What are you supposed to do? You’re supposed to go to the FBI and give them the information. But if you can’t trust the FBI to keep it secret and the FBI is going to tell the press what someone is blackmailing you about, what will happen is it will lead to where more public figures will be likely to be extorted or to be blackmailed.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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