Trump has talked about ordering polygraphs “constantly” when anything major has leaked, according to a former White House official. “He talked about it a lot,” said the former official. After reading and watching reports about his presidency, “He’d be angry and ask, ‘Why can’t we stop these things?’”
“He wanted to polygraph every employee in the building to unearth who it was who spoke to the press,” said another former official, who noted that the president tended to be especially irate when he knew specific news accounts were true. Some White House staffers have even volunteered to take a polygraph to prove their innocence after they were suspected of leaking, according to the former official.
The new details of Trump’s repeated interest in polygraphing provide important context on the president’s state of mind as Democrats demand answers about the White House’s handling of records of his interactions with foreign leaders. A whistleblower has accused White House officials of improperly storing transcripts of the president’s phone calls in a system meant for highly classified intelligence secrets, including a conversation with the president of Ukraine that has set off a spiraling impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives.
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