A couple of days ago I posted on Jason Chaffetz asking Justice to open an investigation in the leaks of highly classified material that ultimately resulted in the forced resignation of National Security Adviser Mike Flynn. Now House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes has made a similar request, but with a different twist.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes on Friday sent a letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation asking it to investigate the leaks of classified information that have produced a series of damaging media reports on President Donald Trump’s administration, according to three sources familiar with the letter.

Nunes has suggested in recent days that the leaks came from career government intelligence employees who are either loyal to former President Barack Obama or opposed to Trump. And Nunes’ letter gives Trump a key Capitol Hill bulkhead in his war on leaks.

According to the sources familiar with Nunes’ letter, it asks FBI Director James Comey to investigate and report back to the intelligence committee on the circumstances behind the leaking of details from Trump’s phone calls with foreign leaders, as well as from communications between his former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn and the Russian Ambassador to the U.S.

Nunes’s letter also asks Comey to look into leaks related to the Central Intelligence Agency’s rejection of an elite-level security clearance for one of Flynn’s closest deputies on the National Security Council, senior director for Africa Robin Townley.

No matter how you feel about Donald Trump, the decision by current members of the intelligence community to misuse classified information to bring down someone they personally don’t like should be terrifying. If allowed to stand it marks the beginning of our descent in a sort of Praetorianism where the institutional power of various agencies is so strong that they can force a president from office.