US News

White House investigating how CIA official’s name was leaked

President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, Denis McDonough, has asked the White House counsel to investigate how the name of the top CIA official in Afghanistan was given to the media, a spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

The White House inadvertently included the name on a list of participants in a military briefing with Obama that was distributed to reporters on Sunday during his trip to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. The White House had declined to comment on the incident until Tuesday.

“The chief of staff has asked the White House counsel, Neil Eggleston, to look into what happened and report back to him with recommendations on how the administration can improve processes and make sure something like this does not happen again,” White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement.