WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump is not currently considering using lie detector tests to identify the senior administration official who wrote an explosive op-ed in The New York Times last week, the White House has said.
The anonymous official, identified only as “a senior official in the Trump administration”, launched a nearly unprecedented attack on the President in the op-ed, saying Trump’s “erratic” and “amoral” behavior is “detrimental” to America’s health.
He claimed that many top officials are working diligently to frustrate parts of the President’s agenda and his “worst inclinations”. White House press secretary Sarah Sanders assured reporters Monday that the president is not currently considering using lie detectors to figure out which senior administrative official wrote the anonymous op-ed, The Washington Examiner reported.
“No lie detectors are being used or talked about,” she said, adding that everyone in the administration is focused on advancing the president’s agenda, not worrying about the “gutless” author of the op-ed. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul first floated the idea last week that Trump would be justified in using lie detector tests to smoke out the anonymous author, the report said.
Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have denied authoring the op-ed, claiming the author should be ashamed for writing it and that people shouldn’t take too much credence in the words. Pence told Fox News that he would take a lie detector test in a “heartbeat,” if the president wanted him to do so.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson have all denied writing the op-ed. The daily, which rarely publishes anonymous articles, said it did not disclose the name of the senior official in the Trump administration on the request of the author, whose “identity is known to us and whose job would be jeopardized by its disclosure”.
The nearly unprecedented attack on the President drew a sharp reaction from Trump who termed the op-ed as “treason” and “gutless”. In a tweet, the president demanded that NYT reveal the identity of the person. PTI
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