Some rank-and-file White House aides, meanwhile, have become convinced that intelligence agents may be monitoring their phone calls, emails, and text messages. Those fears intensified last week when WikiLeaks released a trove of CIA documents outlining how the agency can break into phones and computers.
In an interview, one White House aide described the elaborate steps he was taking to shield himself. Once he gets home in the evening, he turns off his work phone and stores it in a drawer because, he said, he believes it could be used to listen to him even when it’s off. If he makes a call during off-hours, he uses a separate, personal phone in an adjoining room, where the stowed work device wouldn’t be able to pick up his voice as clearly.
From: ‘People are scared’: Paranoia seizes Trump’s White House – POLITICO
I’m struggling to understand who “rank and file White House aides” could refer to. It’s pretty rarified real estate – is there “rank and file” anything there? Which gets to my real question – whoever they are, how can they get away with turning off their work phones ever? I mean that’s kinda the point of such phones – 24/7 availability.