South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham wants to see the hammer of justice come down hard on whoever leaked an intelligence report on the United States’ military strikes in Iran, and he has an idea of who it was.
Speaking to Fox News host Jesse Watters on Thursday the senator insinuated that it had to come from a member of the House or Senate on the intelligence committees because of their access to those reports.
“Right now, they are looking for a leaker. So does Congress — how does this work? Now they are looking at Congress. I thought at first it was a Pentagon guy, but now they are saying it could have been a member of Congress. Do they go into a computer and access it, like, how does this work?” the host said to Graham.
“You get the report. You get the initial assessment, members of Congress do on certain committees. We can rule me out as a leaker,” Graham responded sarcastically.
“Crossing you off the list,” Watters quipped.
“I’m not pushing the narrative, this was not a very good strike,” Graham said. This was obliteration by the definition in the dictionary and if you were on the ground …,” he said before Watters interrupted to ask him to explain how it works in Congress with intelligence reports.
“We get information—certain committees do—about the initial Defense Intelligence Agency assessment. Somebody leaked that assessment to suggest that the operation was not what Trump said it was,” the senator said.
“They have a political motivation. You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to figure this out. It is somebody who wants to undercut Trump. Is that a member of Congress? Could be. I don’t care what your title is. If you leaked classified information, you should go to jail,” he said.
But not everyone is convinced that the report was leaked by a Democrat.
Some in President Donald Trump’s orbit are speculating that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has put herself “in the line of fire” as he searches for the party responsible for leaking classified U.S. intelligence about the bombs dropped on Iran.
Days of vehement opposition to reporting by CNN and the New York Times suggest that Trump is angrier than normal about the leak of a study claiming that a dozen 30,000-pound “bunker buster” bombs achieved nothing to halt Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. He has pointed fingers at members of Congress and claimed that the White House will no longer provide as frequent briefings on military operations.
According to sources who spoke to the Daily Mail, Trump’s obsession with Gabbard shows that some of the individuals he previously trusted may be participating.
Gabbard was sidelined before a briefing to Congress on the attack. According to Trump officials, Gabbard will not be there on Thursday when representatives give evidence that Operation Midnight Hammer resulted in the “total obliteration” of Iran’s three nuclear installations.
Gabbard was scheduled to attend the briefing alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
“It’s always important in the Trump script, the fallback is always who to blame, who to blame. Just have to have someone to blame. Tulsi is in the line of fire,” Trump biographer Michael Wolff said about Gabbard’s predicament.
Wolff added: “There is an investigation that is going on. They will try to find someone to blame. Within the White House, within the West Wing, what they are saying as of this morning, who this is being pinned on, is Tulsi.”
Despite Wolff’s assessment of Gabbard’s situation, an administration insider told the outlet that the media is “turning this into something it’s not.”