Donald Trump’s administration is interested in placing the blame for a leaked Pentagon report about Iran on anyone but themselves. Now, they’ve started pointing fingers at members of Congress, and even threatening them, too.
Fox News’s Laura Ingraham asked Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche Wednesday night what would happen if it turned out that a lawmaker had leaked an early assessment from the Defense Intelligence Agency that determined that Iran’s nuclear capabilities hadn’t actually been destroyed—undermining Trump’s claim that they’d been “completely and fully obliterated.”
“Well, I mean you tell me Laura. If a member of Congress, very few of whom are shared this very sensitive information, based on the reporting, shortly after information was sent to members of Congress, this leaked, if it was a member of Congress himself or herself who leaked this, are they immune from criminal liability for putting the safety of the United States of America at risk? Nowhere that I read,” a tongue-tied Blanche replied.
“So you would say that that would not be covered under the immunity clause of the Constitution? That behavior?” Ingraham pressed.
“I’m not aware of an immunity clause that protected anybody in this country from disclosing classified, top secret information, or even higher information to The New York Times. If such a statute exists, it has not been presented to me,” Blanche said.
Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth spent much of Wednesday downplaying the results of the report and raging at members of the press, instead of taking any accountability for the lies and the leaks. At no point did they mention that the report had been sent to Congress. Now, it seems they’ve set eyes on a new scapegoat.
On Thursday, Hegseth, and other top national security officials are expected to give their first briefing to senators on the U.S. strike on three Iranian nuclear facilities.
This isn’t the first time that the Trump administration has threatened legal action against members of Congress. The government previously said it was open to arresting lawmakers who participated in anti-ICE demonstrations—it’ll just keep baselessly claiming that they assaulted immigration officers.