Hegseth says FBI probing Iran nuclear site damage report leak, confirming top secret assessment is real [View all]

Source: The Independent

Wednesday 25 June 2025 13:25 EDT


The FBI has begun investigating how a preliminary intelligence assessment regarding the impact of U.S. military strikes on Iranian nuclear sites became public, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters.

Speaking to the press at the NATO Summit in the Netherlands, Hegseth confirmed the top-secret report – which suggested the attack had not wiped out the Iranian nuclear program as claimed by President Donald Trump – was real but emphasized that it was a “preliminary” and “low-confidence” assessment, not a final conclusion about the damage caused.

Both Donald Trump and Hegseth have repeatedly stated since Saturday night that the bombing of three nuclear facilities was successful, with the president claiming that they had “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s enrichment facilities.

“We are doing a leak investigation with the FBI now, because this information is for internal purposes — battle damage investigation — and CNN and others are trying to spin it to try and make the president look bad when this was an overwhelming success,” Hegseth told reporters in the Hague, standing beside the president and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The preliminary report from the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) stated that the strikes on three sites at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan only set back Tehran’s nuclear ambitions by a few months.

Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/hegseth-iran-strike-damage-report-leak-fbi-b2776900.html