Number one leaker...

Conway responds to claim she's the number one leaker

By LOUIS NELSON

Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway claimed Monday that she has a “great relationship” with Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the president’s family members and close advisers, disputing an assertion from the author of a forthcoming book that she is the “number one leaker” in the White House.

“I have a great working relationship and a great relationship with Jared and Ivanka, had dinner with them recently at their house,” Conway said Monday morning, telling Fox News’s “Fox & Friends” that she had discussed the issue briefly on Sunday with President Donald Trump. “He knows, and he has said publicly and privately who the leakers and the liars are and have been. Very happy that there’s a lot less leaking in the White House now than there was.”

In an interview Sunday morning with CNN’s “State of the Union,” author Ronald Kessler said Conway is the top source of leaks inside the Trump administration, recalling an on the record interview with her in which she “said the most mean, cutting and obviously untrue things about Reince” Priebus, the former White House chief of staff who was fired last summer. In that same interview, Kessler said, Conway “also lit into Jared and Ivanka, saying that they leak against Steve Bannon.”

Conway offered her retort Monday morning as the White House Easter egg roll played out behind her, suggesting that her name is used often in headlines and TV chyrons to gin up interest in a story. She said the general theme of Kessler’s book – that Trump will ultimately be remembered successfully as a Reaganesque president – is obvious to “those of us who have the privilege of having access to him, working here every single day.”

She also seemingly reveled in her continued role with the Trump administration while others have departed, telling Fox News reporter Abby Huntsman that those who have “survived a lot of people and continue to be here” inspire “a lot of jealously and backbiting.” Without naming names, she attacked administration leakers and suggested those who have been the loudest in their complaints about the media have also been among the most prolific sources for political reporters. Conway also warned that she will someday have her own story to tell.

"Leakers get great press. And one day, Abby I will have my say. So that will be very, very fascinating. I will have my say,” she said. “You know, we learned a long time ago around here, the people who say ‘enemy of the people, opposition party, fake news, biased media,’ they can talk to the media all day long because nobody would suspect them.”