Trump again floats prosecuting those who leaked Iran intelligence report
President Trump said he would like to see those involved in leaking an intelligence report on Iran prosecuted, and suggested the government could go after reporters to unmask their sources.
Why it matters: Trump and officials in his administration have railed against the media's coverage of the Defense Intelligence Agency's preliminary report on the U.S. strikes against three Iranian nuclear sites.
The DIA report, which was leaked to several national media outlets, estimated that Iran's nuclear program had been set back by just months, rather than Trump's claim that it was "obliterated" by the strike.
The White House dismissed the reporting by the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN and others as "fake news" and said the outlets were attempting to undermine the president.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Dan Caine also said at a press conference last week that the DIA's report was "low confidence."
Zoom out: Appearing on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" in a pre-taped interview, Trump said he "suspects" his administration will investigate and prosecute anyone they discover leaked the report to the media.
In a message shared to Truth Social, Trump had previously accused Democrats of leaking the report and called for them to be prosecuted. He doubled down on that stance during the interview.
The president also suggested that reporters should be subpoenaed for their sources, saying, "they could find out if they wanted. They could find out easily."
"You have to do that. I suspect we'll be doing things like that," he added.
State of play: Trump also railed against the news media in the interview, lamenting the "fake news" coverage and again said that Iran's nuclear program was "obliterated like nobody's ever seen before."
Last week, the president threatened to sue the New York Times and CNN for their coverage.
His personal lawyer sent a letter to the Times on Wednesday calling on it to "retract and apologize for" the article, which the letter said was "false" and "defamatory," the news outlet reported.
Worth noting: Israel's initial assessment of the damage done in the U.S. airstrike said that "very significant damage" occurred.
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