President Trump’s advisers have reportedly discussed using lie-detector tests to find out which member of the administration wrote the anonymous op-ed in The New York Times.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a Trump ally, suggested Thursday that the administration use lie-detector tests to determine the op-ed’s author.
The Times reported Thursday that Trump’s advisers have discussed the idea.
{mosads}Lie-detector tests have been proposed in White House investigations before, the Times noted.
President Reagan was originally going to polygraph senior officials as he worked to determine who leaked a story about military operations in Lebanon to the media.
Reagan, however, never followed through with the plan after his secretary of State, George Schultz, threatened to resign, the Times noted.
Other people close to the president are reportedly considering asking senior White House officials suspected of writing the op-ed to sign sworn affidavits that could be used against them in court.
The White House has been working furiously to identify the official behind the anonymous op-ed, who lambasted Trump’s “amorality” and described a group of White House staffers working against Trump’s “misguided impulses.”
An outside adviser told the newspaper that the White House has compiled a list of roughly 12 suspected authors of the op-ed.
Various Trump administration officials, including several Cabinet members, raced to denounce the op-ed on Thursday, denying that they had written the article and criticizing whoever did.
Trump went after The New York Times and the op-ed’s writer during a speech in Billings, Mont., on Thursday night.
“You look at this horrible thing that took place, is it subversion, is it treason?” Trump asked the crowd at the campaign-style rally.