Leavitt: FBI investigating ‘leaked’ Iran info given to CNN

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during the daily briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on March 17, 2025.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced that the FBI is now investigating who leaked “inaccurate” information on the damage done to Iranian nuclear facilities to CNN.

CNN reporter Natasha Bertrand claimed to have obtained an early assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) that stated the U.S.’ recent bombings of three nuclear facilities only set back Iran’s nuclear program back by a “few months.” Bertrand is a Pentagon correspondent for CNN, covering national security.

However, Trump explained to NBC News’ Kelly O’Donnell that the recent DIA report on the destruction of the nuclear sites had been incomplete, since the details were still in their early stages when whoever stole them released it to the press.

Trump also maintained that the informants did not properly assess all the damage done by the involved B-2 bombers.

In addition, on Wednesday, Leavitt appeared on Fox News’ “America Reports” program, where she asserted that the FBI has launched an investigation into who leaked a “top secret intelligence analysis” to the news outlet.

“I am told by the FBI [that] the leak is already being investigated and it absolutely should be,” Leavitt said. “Because this was a top secret intelligence analysis that very few people in the United States government had access to see. So I understand that the FBI and the Department of Justice are already on this as they should be.”

.@PressSec: “I am told by the FBI the leak is already being investigated and it absolutely should be because this was a top secret intelligence analysis that very few people in the United States government had access to see.” pic.twitter.com/oMwRL0siCS

— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) June 25, 2025

Soon after, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also accused the left-leaning news outlet of trying to “spin” the narrative of the GOP administration’s attack on Iran in an attempt to “hurt” Trump — like they always seem to do.

“[T]he instinct of CNN, the instinct of The New York Times is to try to find a way to spin it for their own political reason to try to hurt President Trump or our country. They don’t care what the troops think, they don’t care what the world thinks. They want to spin it to try to make him look bad based on a leak,” Hegseth said.

CNN then issued a statement in response to the administration’s warning, emphasizing that the company backs their reporter — while also arguing that it is not “reasonable” to fault their journalists “for accurately reporting the existence of the assessment.”

Analysts say that the leak most likely originated from a relatively low‑level intelligence employee, a “paper‑pusher” within the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). The disruption stemmed from a single-day snapshot lacking coordination with other intelligence agencies, making the leak appear opportunistic, rather than whistleblowing.