The Trump administration is cracking down on government leakers and curbing the flow of classified information to corporate media outlets, following the latest intelligence leak.
President Donald Trump is reportedly limiting the sharing of classified information with Congress after CNN published details from a leaked preliminary Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report assessing the aftermath of recent U.S. strikes on Iran that suggested the damage was minimal. While some Democrats have expressed outrage, others contend that such a move has long been overdue in light of leaks that influenced situations like the “Russiagate” probe and allegations of influence peddling surrounding Hunter Biden.
“We are declaring a war on leakers,” a senior White House official told Axios on Wednesday. “The intelligence community is figuring out how to tighten up their processes so we don’t have ‘Deep State’ actors leaking parts of intel analysis that have ‘low confidence’ to the media.”(RELATED: Former CIA Officer: ‘Russiagate’ Was Manufactured By The Clinton Campaign)
WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 21: U.S. President Donald Trump delivers an address to the nation from the White House on June 21, 2025 in Washington, D.C. President Trump addressed the three Iranian nuclear facilities that were struck by the U.S. military early Sunday. (Photo by Carlos Barria – Pool/Getty Images)
The leaked DIA report supposedly indicated that the strikes on Iran’s Fordow and Natanz nuclear sites only set the regime’s nuclear ambitions back by months rather than being “obliterated” as Trump suggested. Among the contributors to the CNN article was national security reporter Natasha Bertrand, who had previously published an article amplifying the now-debunked claims from U.S. intelligence officials that suggested the Hunter Biden laptop was likely an instrument of “Russian disinformation,” just weeks before the 2020 election.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Thursday that the source of the leak is believed to be someone on Capitol Hill or within the intelligence community, though the FBI is still investigating the details.
“It’s the job of the administration to protect classified information, and if they believe there’s a leaker in Congress, they have an obligation to limit intel sharing until the leaker is identified,” Will Chamberlain, senior counsel at the Article III Project, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“Legacy media outlets that receive classified leaks should expect subpoenas for their sources, who committed serious crimes,” Chamberlain added.
Mike Howell, president of the Oversight Project, a group that investigates government corruption, also accused corporate media outlets of fueling the problem by serving as willing recipients of politically-motivated leaks.
“The nature of the relationship between the media and the government needs serious scrutiny,” Howell told the DCNF. “We need a free press, which means an independent press and we don’t have that right now. We have corporate media entities that are in a dark, collusive relationship with some parts of the government, and that’s a huge problem for a constitutional republic. That’s the story of the Russian collusion hoax, up to the very day.”
The dynamic of partisan actors and media outlets jointly misleading the public was particularly apparent in the Trump-Russia collusion hoax, which dominated corporate media coverage for years. High-ranking Democrats pushed unfounded claims of conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, and many media outlets continued to promote these claims even after they were widely discredited.
The Washington Post and The New York Times won Pulitzer Prizes for their advancement of the Russian collusion narrative. Despite significant portions of the reporting being proven false and a defamation lawsuit from Trump, the Pulitzer Prize Board declined in 2022 to revoke the awards.
The move to cut off Congress from classified intelligence is facing strong resistance from Democratic lawmakers.
Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called it “extraordinarily disturbing,” while House Intelligence Committee ranking member Jim Himes said it was “unacceptable for the Administration to use unsubstantiated speculation” to “justify cutting off Congress,” according to Axios.
Others, such as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, downplayed the risk of the leak.
“This isn’t about national security — it’s about Trump’s insecurity. President Trump is cutting off intelligence to Congress, raising one clear question: what is he hiding?” Schumer told Axios.
Howell, however, said the threat of politically-motivated leaks warrants a decisive response.
“There’s not a constitutional right to oversight for minority members as a matter of law,” Howell said. “As a matter of practicality, you have a Democratic Party right now that is subversive to our national interest. I think it’s wise to not only limit the sharing of intel, but also a lot of other information, with Democrats.”
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