By Steve Neavling
The FBI has launched an investigation into how a classified U.S. intelligence report on recent strikes against Iranian nuclear sites was leaked to the media, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday.
Speaking at the NATO Summit in the Netherlands, Hegseth confirmed the report’s authenticity but emphasized it was a “preliminary” and “low-confidence” assessment that did not reflect final conclusions about the operation’s impact,” the Independent reports.
CNN first reported that the assessment found the strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan may have set back the country’s program by only a few months, contradicting President Donald Trump’s claim that the facilities were “completely and totally obliterated.”
“We are doing a leak investigation with the FBI now, because this information is for internal purposes,” Hegseth said, accusing media outlets of spinning the report “to try and make the president look bad.”
Hegseth defended the strikes and criticized the leaked analysis.
“It was a top secret report — preliminary, low-confidence — so you make assessments based on what you know,” he said. “If you want to make an assessment of what happened at Fordow, you better get a big shovel and go really deep, because Iran’s nuclear program is obliterated.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also dismissed the leak, calling the source a “professional stabber” and saying, “That’s the game these people play. They read it and then they go out and characterize it the way they want.”
CNN cited four people briefed on the assessment, including sources who said Iran’s centrifuges remained largely intact and that its stockpile of enriched uranium wasn’t destroyed.
The White House acknowledged the report Tuesday but rejected its conclusions. Press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the leaked assessment was “flat-out wrong” and came from “an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community.”
