GOP senators finger RI native Donilon as White House leaker

WPRI.COM

Ted Nesi

Updated: Jun 26, 2012 6:12 PM

Rhode Island native and La Salle Academy grad Tom Donilon became President Obama’s national security adviser in December 2010 after a career that included a senior gig at Fannie Mae. Donilon has been called one of Obama’s most influential advisers; he even wrote the formal orders to get Osama bin Laden.

Donilon is now getting some unwelcome publicity, Foreign Policy’s Peter Feaver reports:

Outrage over the recent national security leaks has been slowly building. It has all the signs of having legs, as they say in the business — of being a long-term Big Problem, rather than a short-term distraction. …

And the outrage is beginning to have a focus: on National Security Advisor Tom Donilon. Old Beltway hands see the dots as connecting and pointing to Donilon as the most senior, if not the earliest and certainly not the only, source. The focus may be unfair, or at least based only on circumstantial evidence. Undoubtedly others were leaking sensitive information, perhaps without the knowledge or approval of senior leaders like Donilon, let alone his boss, the president. But when folks like Tom Ricks are starting a death watch the focus is likely to stay riveted on White House advisors, and on Donilon in particular.

Feaver goes on to suggest Donilon may have already tendered his resignation, and the president may soon take him up on it to avoid a major campaign distraction. Here’s more on Donilon’s tenure.

(photo: Pete Souza/The White House)

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