Trump is desperate to find leakers with phones being searched and false information planted - but only one staffer has been caught and the president ignored evidence against White House counsel

Donald Trump's chief of staff has begun an aggressive campaign to root out leakers from the White House, according to a new report, and yet the president has been reluctant to act when leakers are 'outed' and close to him.

Mark Meadows, who in March became Trump's fourth chief of staff in a little over three years, has told staff of his scheme, Axios reported.

Meadows has been deliberately feeding false information to key people, to see what appears in the media.

'Meadows told me he was doing that,' said one former White House official. 'I don't know if it ever worked.' 

+4

Donald Trump pictured with Mark Meadows, his chief of staff, who is looking for leakers

The 60-year-old former representative for North Carolina has, according to Axios, caught one 'relatively minor' leaker so far.

On June 12 Meadows told Ted Cruz's podcast that an unnamed federal worker who leaked a draft of a White House executive order was fired. 

The order was designed to limit censorship on social media.

'All the sudden, this proposed EO shows up in the New York Times,' said Meadows, according to The Washington Examiner. 

'And it was really fed to the New York Times by a federal worker that didn't agree with this administration, or at least it appears that they didn't. And they didn't agree with the EO, and so they took it and fed it to outside sources. 

'And I'm glad to say we were able to track that person down. 

'They no longer work for the federal government.' 

+4

Trump has made Meadows his fourth chief of staff, replacing Mick Mulvaney in March

Sources told the site that Meadows's predecessor, Mick Mulvaney, was similarly tasked to find those leaking information to reporters.

In January, Mulvaney asked the White House's IT department to search the work cellphone records of senior staff. 

His office gave the IT department the cell phone numbers of the top reporters who cover the White House, and officials cross-referenced the journalists' numbers with those of the federal employees, to see who was speaking to who.

Pat Cipollone, White House Counsel, was identified by Mulvaney as having made some suspicious calls.

But when Mulvaney took the information to the president, Trump reportedly brushed it aside, replying: 'The guy doesn't even talk to the press. Never has.'

Cipollone was reported to have spoken to Maggie Haberman of the New York Times and Pamela Brown from CNN.

Cipollone's allies in the White House defended him.

'Pat was encouraged by the president to talk with the media because the president viewed him as a strong advocate on his behalf,' said a former administration official familiar with the impeachment defense.

'This was part of a coordinated effort.

'It's important to note Pat made all of these calls from his official phone. 

'If he was leaking do you really think he'd be doing it from his official phone?'

+4

Mick Mulvaney served as Trump's chief of staff from January 2019 until March 2020

+4

Mulvaney told Trump White House Counsel Pat Cipollone made suspicious calls to reporters

Trump has long been enraged by leaks from his White House.

His first press secretary, Sean Spicer, famously made his team place their cell phones on the table during a meeting, so they could be searched.

Spicer's successor, Anthony Scaramucci, famously threatened to fire all the leakers - but was himself caught leaking information. 

Trump has told multiple members of staff it was a high priority to find 'Anonymous,' the senior administration official who wrote a viral New York Times op-ed and later a bestselling book describing Trump as dangerously unfit and unstable. 

Authorship attribution software was purchased, in a bid to match writing styles, but failed to work.

Peter Navarro, the trade envoy, pieced together his own analysis, drawing up a detailed document that pointed the finger at former national security staffer Victoria Coates. She vehemently denied the charge and retained counsel.  

He was infuriated by a Politico report that intelligence suggested that the Russians were paying the Taliban bounties to kill American soldiers. 

A senior White House official confirmed Politico's reporting that they have narrowed down the list of suspected leakers to fewer than 10 people.

Trump was also enraged when the New York Times reported that the Secret Service rushed him down to the bunker during the protests outside the White House. 

'Leaks drive presidents crazy,' said Chris Whipple, a presidential historian. 

'They always have and they always will. But one thing that effective chiefs of staff figure out is that the way you prevent leaks is not by tapping people's phones or threatening to ruin them.' 

Whipple told Axios that the answer to stopping leaks was simple.  

'A good chief of staff knows that the best way to prevent damaging leaks is to stop doing illegal, stupid stuff,' he said. 

'You don't have to be James Baker to figure that out.'