Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said Thursday that the leaks from the intelligence community to reporters that exposed Mike Flynn's calls to the Russian ambassador are a threat to "a free society."

Paul said on MSNBC that Flynn needs to be investigated and prosecuted if he broke the law, but some attention needs to be given to the role the intelligence community played in bringing him down. Flynn resigned Monday night after reports indicated he was not completely truthful with the Trump administration over his calls with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Details of the calls were leaked to news organizations, and a report in the Washington Post that the White House knew about Flynn's false statements for weeks appeared to be a factor in the decision to let Flynn go.

"That is not just a leak," Paul said. "We're talking about private information between high-ranking government officials and high-ranking foreign officials. If we're going to release that to the press, that is very, very worrisome. And, in the process of that, we're going to destroy people the intelligence community disagrees with?"

"This is not a partisan issue. This is troubling for a free society," he said.

At the same time, Paul said it's proper that Flynn be investigated for his dealings with the Russian government.

"Law enforcement should and is looking at this, and should determine if any laws were broken," Paul said. "There needs to be more discussion about what law was broken if a law was broken."