Kentucky Senator Rand Paul is floating the idea of subjecting high-ranking White House officials with security clearances to lie detector tests to determine which senior administrative official penned a critical opinion piece in the New York Times.
The Bowling Green senator told reporters Thursday that President Trump would be justified in using lie detector technology to track down the identity of the official in question. The anonymous Times op-ed author describes him or herself as part of the "resistance" working inside the Trump administration to stymie the president's most "misguided impulses."
Paul has raised the idea before. In 2017, the senator told ABC News the tests could be used to find out who leaked transcripts of former national security advisor Michael Flynn’s conversations with the Russian ambassador to the U.S.
"There can only be a certain handful of people who did that," he said. "I would bring them all in. They would have to take lie detector tests."
The lawmaker said the situation could be “very dangerous if the person who is talking to the media is actually revealing national security secrets.”
Top officials in the White House have denied authoring the piece.