President Donald Trump on Friday expressed his frustration that politically damaging information from inside his administration continues to find its way into the press, tweeting that the leaks could have a "devastating effect" on the country.

"The FBI is totally unable to stop the national security "leakers" that have permeated our government for a long time," he wrote. "They can't even find the leakers within the FBI itself. Classified information is being given to media that could have a devastating effect on U.S. FIND NOW."

find the leakers within the FBI itself. Classified information is being given to media that could have a devastating effect on U.S. FIND NOW — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2017



The tweets – which were also shared on Trump's official presidential Twitter account and Facebook page – seemed to be in response to a CNN report released late Thursday that the White House had demanded the FBI publicly discredit reporting earlier this month that a number of Trump's inner circle had contacts with Russian operatives during the 2016 election.

The request came from chief of staff Reince Priebus, who reportedly complained to FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe that a New York Times report last week that intelligence agencies had intercepted calls between Trump's team and Russian intelligence officials was inaccurate.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer did not deny that the administration had made the request to the FBI, but challenged CNN's characterization of events.

"We didn't try to knock the story down," Spicer said. "We asked them to tell the truth."

While it's not clear what classified information Trump was referring to in his tweets – Priebus' request to McCabe would not likely fall into that category – a White House official, not the FBI, was CNN's source.

That official said Priebus reached out to again McCabe and FBI Director James Comey to ask the FBI to dispute the stories, a request Comey then rejected because of the ongoing investigation into Trump's ties with Russia.

The requests infuriated Democrats who said the White House had violated policies intended to shield investigators from political pressure.

"The White House is simply not permitted to pressure the FBI to make public statements about a pending investigation of the president and his advisers," said Michigan Rep. John Conyers, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.