Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said top White House strategist Steve Bannon and former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus were responsible for "60 percent" of leaks in his estimation.
Scaramucci, who served just 10 days on the job before getting fired over his profanity-laden interview with the New Yorker, told the New York Post Tuesday that the pair worked to get rid of him from the start and "were responsible for half of the personal attacks on other colleagues in the White House."
"Priebus and Bannon were probably responsible for 60 percent of the leaking at the White House," he said. "It was a Priebus leak that the Secret Service escorted me out when I was fired. But that’s not the case. The protocol is that you are escorted out by one of the White House personnel. That was done to try to hit me and make me look like I’d done something nefarious. That’s how they operate, from the shadows."
He continued, "Going into the White House, Priebus and Bannon were very clear they did not want me there. Bannon specifically said that I had a ‘zero chance of being comms director’ and they were doing everything they could to get me out. You’ve got two people in very powerful positions — I think they are small people frankly — but they were in powerful positions, so I always knew it was going to be very tough for me."
He says that after he’d blasted the pair in that infamous New Yorker interview [in which Scaramucci said, "I’m not Steve Bannon. I’m not trying to suck my own c–k," and branded Priebus, "a f–king paranoid schizophrenic, a paranoiac"] the Mooch told us Monday night that, "Bannon and Priebus were working even harder that weekend after the interview came out to get rid of me."
Press Secretary Sean Spicer reportedly resigned in protest upon Priebus' appointment to the job, and Priebus was forced out and replaced by Gen. John Kelly before Scaramucci was fired.
Scaramucci remarked upon taking the communications position that all leakers would be fired under his watch. He told the New York Post that Priebus' dismissal would pave the way for a "more functional White House."
Trump would not expressly say he had confidence Tuesday in Bannon, following reports the president had suspected Bannon was the source of damaging leaks about his White House colleagues.