Senator Rand Paul Suggests Lie Detector "Tests" to Identify Author of New York Times Op-Ed

[George W. Maschke]

On Wednesday, 5 September 2018, the New York Times published an op-ed article by an anonymous senior Trump administration official titled, "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration: I work for the president but like-minded colleagues and I have vowed to thwart parts of his agenda and his worst inclinations."

An immediate effort began to identify the article's author. To that end, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) on Thursday, 6 September 2018 recommended the use of lie detectors on senior administration officials with security clearances. Alexander Bolton reports for TheHill.com:

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/405408-rand-paul-trump-should-use-lie-detector-tests-to-find-anonymous-op-ed

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Thursday that President Trump should use lie-detector tests to find out which senior administration official authored an anonymous op-ed in The New York Times this week blasting the president.

The author, who is only identified as "a senior official" in the Trump administration, claimed there is resistance within the White House by otherwise loyal Republicans to what they see as Trump's "amorality" and "anti-trade and anti-democratic" impulses.

Paul said Trump should investigate and use lie detector tests to identify the person, who also claimed in the op-ed that Cabinet officials have quietly discussed using the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office.

"It's not unprecedented for people with security clearances to be asked whether or not they're revealing things against the law under oath and also by lie detector," Paul said.

"We use the lie-detector test routinely for CIA agents and FBI agents," he argued. "If you have a security clearance in the White House, I think it would be acceptable to use a lie detector test and ask people whether or not they're taking to the media against the policy of the White House."

Paul warned that if the op-ed's author has a security clearance, he or she could also divulge national security secrets to the media.

"We need to get to the bottom of it," he said.

But when asked whether Congress should also investigate, Paul shook his head no.

A number of Trump Cabinet members on Thursday rushed to distance themselves from the op-ed, which Trump has blasted, accusing the author of "treason."

The White House has called for the "coward" who wrote the column to resign.

Also on Thursday, 6 September 2018, Peter Baker, Maggie Haberman and Eileen Sullivan reported for the New York Times that Senator Rand's recommendation had been discussed at the White House. Excerpt:

...

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, an ally of Mr. Trump's, recommended that the president force members of his administration to take polygraph examinations, and there was at least briefly some discussion of that among advisers to the president. Another option mentioned by people close to Mr. Trump was asking senior officials to sign sworn affidavits that could be used in court if necessary. One outside adviser said the White House had a list of about 12 suspects.

...

Lie detector tests have been proposed before in White House leak investigations but sometimes with combustible results. When President Ronald Reagan agreed to an aide's proposal to polygraph senior officials in search for the source of a story about military operations in Lebanon, James A. Baker III, the White House chief of staff, objected strenuously and Secretary of State George P. Shultz threatened to resign. Mr. Reagan backed off.

...

[beat_the_system]

Lie detector tests have been proposed before in White House leak investigations but sometimes with combustible results. When President Ronald Reagan agreed to an aide's proposal to polygraph senior officials in search for the source of a story about military operations in Lebanon, James A. Baker III, the White House chief of staff, objected strenuously and Secretary of State George P. Shultz threatened to resign. Mr. Reagan backed off.

I believe this is also the reason that the U.S. Department of State, whose Bureau of Intelligence and Research is a member of the Intelligence Community (IC), is the only IC member that does not polygraph their employees.  As Secretary of State in 1985, George Shultz was head of the U.S. Department of State, and vehemently opposed the polygraph even during the national security investigations at that time. Shultz's resignation threats are the basis for the U.S. Department of State still to this day refraining from polygraph testing.