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Analysis: Trump reveled in leaks that hurt Hillary Clinton. Now he calls them 'un-American'

WASHINGTON — President Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday to rage against leakers in his administration who have doled out classified details to journalists like "candy" and have engaged in what he called "un-American" secret spilling.

The angry message was part of a blitz of tweets taking aim at the news media - and leaks from intelligence agencies — for reports of secret Russian contacts that led to the resignation of the White House security adviser Michael Flynn.

But the direct slam against the leaks suggested deepening struggles within the Trump White House as it faces growing questions — and possible congressional probes — about how and when the president and other top officials dealt with the disclosures that Flynn conducted private outreach with Russia's ambassador during the campaign. Intercepts showed that Flynn discussed U.S. sanctions in a phone call with the Russian ambassador — a conversation topic that Flynn first denied and then later said he could not recall.

Trump's ire over the insider tips to journalists also contrasted with his indirect praise of disclosure of leaked internal emails from the Hillary Clinton campaign made public by WikiLeaks during the campaign.

Trump tried to brush off the mounting pressures on his administration as a diversion by opponents, even though senior Republican lawmakers have indicated the investigations into Russian contacts will be expanded. On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said it was "highly likely" that the events leading to Flynn's departure would be added to a broader probe into Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election.

The president was referring to recent stories by the New York Times and the Washington Post. Both outlined questionable — and potentially illegal — contact between his own aides and Russia.

A story that posted in The New York Times late Tuesday reported that members of his presidential campaign, as well as other Trump associates, were repeatedly in contact with senior Russian intelligence officials during the campaign. And several stories in the Post reported that Flynn had misled administration officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, about his discussions with the Russian ambassador to the United States over sanctions before Trump was sworn in.

Wednesday was not the first time he had blamed both the media or the intelligence community for an unflattering portrait. Shortly before his inauguration last month, amid reports in CNN that Russia may have compiled a dossier of compromising material on him, Trump again criticized leaks from the intelligence community, asking on Twitter: "Are we living in Nazi Germany?"

But he did have praise for one reporter — Eli Lake, an opinion writer for Bloomberg News — who in a column Tuesday said that Flynn was a victim of a "political assassination." The column was not particularly flattering to Trump, but it criticized the push for Flynn's ouster, with Lake writing Flynn was "thrown under the bus" for his ties to Russia and for becoming "a fierce critic of the intelligence community leaders he once served with when he was the director the Defense Intelligence Agency under President Barack Obama."

The Washington Post's Brian Murphy contributed to this report.