'Dear leaker... ': CNBC's John Harwood goes fishing for a Trump/Russia scoop

Earlier today, full transcripts of President Trump’s phone calls with world leaders were leaked:

#BreakingNews: Transcripts of President #Trump's phone calls with world leaders leaked to media. @BlakeBurman has the latest. pic.twitter.com/hJmIfXntk8

— FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) August 3, 2017

CNBC’s John Harwood is encouraging the leaker to come through for him with this request:

Dear Leaker (you know who you are),
please just send me transcript of Putin call. won't bug you for any more. that's only one I need.
thx J

— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) August 3, 2017

The ethics of that were called into question:

I'm not convinced this is ethical. For that matter, I'm not convinced it's even legal. pic.twitter.com/12qhNqft1x

— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) August 3, 2017

See: https://t.co/RsZxb1jTTp pic.twitter.com/F7cfZhA8NU

— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) August 3, 2017

https://twitter.com/mediacritik/status/893205938148069376

You should be fired if you worked for a reputable organization https://t.co/pD2jeTv0x0

— DanRiehl (@DanRiehl) August 3, 2017

And #MSM goes full Larry Flynt on #POTUS. #Journalism https://t.co/lO6DG78AqI

— Sen. Frank Niceley (@SenFrankNiceley) August 3, 2017

You might recall that Harwood was a GOP debate moderator last year.