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This is both a disturbing look into President Trump's failure to faithfully discharge the duties of his office and a transparent attempt by Kirstjen Nielsen to rehabilitate her reputation under the cover of anonymity. nytimes.com/2019/04/24/us/…
Here is the sourcing for the story. The former official is almost certainly Nielsen herself. Given that Maggie Haberman is on the byline, KellyAnne Conway is likely one of the current officials, possibly SHS as well. 
This is no doubt an important story the public is better off knowing, but when all of this comes out in the wash once Trump is gone, I hope we remember how these sourcing and power dynamics worked to protect so many of the malevolent actors in the Trump White House.
If Kirstjen Nielsen would really like to rehabilitate her reputation, she could try out lifting her anonymity and becoming a whistleblower. The Times granting her anonymity allows her to hide her own culpability. I'm not saying it shouldn't be granted, but it's complicated.
Kellyanne Conway and Sarah Huckabee Sanders lie to the public constantly and then spill the beans anonymously to reporters like Maggie Haberman. Haberman periodically writes a puff piece about them in return, ex...nytimes.com/2016/11/28/us/…
Beat sweetening has a long and useful place in journalism, but I think it's important to ask if these processes really stand up in the face of the exceedingly abnormal Trump administration.
Here's another Haberman beat sweetener on Kellyanne Conway. nytimes.com/2018/03/04/us/…
You get the sense that journalists have soured after the Mueller report revelations, but Haberman often spoke up for SHS. Here's her doing it on CNN. And she famously took Michelle Wolf's joke out of context to stick up for Sanders.
