WASHINGTON — On Thursday, President Trump accused congressional Democrats of leaking a preliminary Pentagon intelligence report that assessed the effectiveness of Saturday’s airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear program.
“The Democrats are the ones who leaked the information on the PERFECT FLIGHT to the Nuclear Sites in Iran. They should be prosecuted!” Trump stated on Truth Social.
It remains uncertain if Trump possesses evidence identifying responsible parties, as the FBI continues to investigate the Tuesday leak of the Defense Intelligence Agency report. The assessment, drafted shortly after the strike, suggested that Iran’s nuclear development may have only been delayed by a few months.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said shortly before Trump’s claim that Democrats in Congress may have been responsible — though she too described no specific evidence and said no conclusions had been made.
“It could have been someone in the intelligence community, or it could have been someone on Capitol Hill who had access to this document. The FBI is searching for that person,” Leavitt told reporters.
“We have seen this playbook run before, where you have people in the intelligence community — or perhaps on Capitol Hill, we don’t know — but I believe the FBI is investigating to find out who that leaker was, because it’s illegal and they should be held accountable.”
Democrats have complained that too little information has been shared about Trump’s unprecedented strike on three Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz.
CNN’s Natasha Bertrand first reported on the preliminary DIA assessment Tuesday — and the New York Times, ABC, CNN, the Washington Post and the Associated Press quickly followed suit.
The rapid confirmation suggests that someone who regularly engages with the media served at minimum as a corroborating source for news outlets.
Leavitt said Thursday that very few people had access to the DIA report before Tuesday’s leak, which the White House alleges was done to undermine the significance of the airstrikes, which resulted in a rapid cease-fire between Iran and Israel and what US agencies and international assessors say was massive damage to Iranian targets.
