Donald Trump’s administration intends to sharply restrict Congress’ access to classified information after the leak of a preliminary assessment of the damage caused by strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. According to four sources contacted by Axios, the White House is outraged by the publication of the analysis, which cast doubt on the president’s claims to have completely ‘eliminated’ Iran’s nuclear programme.
The leak of an internal report by the Department of Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) caused a real scandal in Washington. The document said that the strikes had only rolled back Iran’s nuclear programme by a few months, rather than completely destroying it. The report appeared in the CAPNET system (a secure platform for the exchange of classified data between the executive branch and Congress) on Monday evening, and already on Tuesday fragments of the analysis appeared on CNN and on the pages of The New York Times.
The FBI has launched an investigation into the leak. Meanwhile, the White House says it is ready to reform the system of access to classified information, including restrictions on uploading documents to CAPNET.
In parallel with the US assessment, Israeli intelligence came to more optimistic conclusions: according to them, the strikes caused ‘very significant’ damage to Iranian facilities. These differences in interpretation have only intensified divisions within the U.S. establishment.
In Congress, especially among Democrats, the new wave of restrictions provoked a violent reaction. Many were already unhappy that the administration had not held a pre-briefing with elected members of Congress before the bombings began. Now, the denial of a full information exchange with the legislature threatens to polarise even further.
