The White House has announced plans to restrict intelligence sharing with Congress following a leak concerning the impact of recent U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. This decision, confirmed by a senior White House official to NBC News, specifically involves minimizing the information shared on CAPNET, the secure system utilized for disseminating classified materials to congressional members.
As this development unfolds, it is expected to spark backlash from Democratic lawmakers, particularly with a classified briefing scheduled for Thursday afternoon with top Cabinet officials. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer voiced concern, stating, “The administration should immediately undo this decision. They seem not to want to see the facts get out, just Trump’s version of the facts, which we know is often false.”
The intention to limit information sharing was first reported by Axios, detailing the ongoing frustrations within the administration following the leaking of a preliminary assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). The leaked assessment indicated that the U.S. strikes had only temporarily hindered Iran’s nuclear program by three to six months.
In a show of solidarity, House Speaker Mike Johnson also expressed his outrage over the leak, linking it to possible congressional sources. He stated, “There was a leak, and we’re trying to get down to the bottom of that. It’s dangerous and ridiculous that happened. We’re going to solve that problem, and we’ll keep the coordination.” When pressed on whether he believes a member of Congress was responsible for the leak, Johnson responded, “That’s my suspicion.”
Notably, lawmakers had access to the DIA’s initial assessment in a secure area of the Capitol known as a SCIF. Despite a thorough investigation into the leak, the origins remain unclear, raising questions about accountability and transparency.
On Thursday, the Senate is poised to receive a classified briefing from key administration officials who will address the situation. The briefing was initially scheduled for Tuesday but was delayed, heightening suspicions among Democrats regarding the administration’s intentions to obscure critical information.
Four senior officials are slated to participate in the briefing, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Notably absent will be Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who has ongoing responsibilities at DNI. According to a senior administration official, “CIA Director Ratcliffe will represent the intelligence community tomorrow while Tulsi Gabbard continues her critical work at DNI. The media is turning this into something it’s not.”
Following the strikes and the subsequent leak, Trump administration officials have engaged in extensive efforts to defend the military actions taken against three significant nuclear facilities in Iran, claiming success in meeting their objectives. Secretary Hegseth and General Caine held a briefing at the Pentagon on Thursday morning, where they expressed disapproval of the media reports stemming from the classified assessment.
During this briefing, Hegseth emphasized the preliminary nature of the assessment and referred to a statement made by Ratcliffe, asserting that Iran’s nuclear program had been “severely damaged” and that several critical sites had been “destroyed.”
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