The highest-ranking official from the Trump administration to publicly oppose the president’s war on Iran is now being scrutinized by the FBI over alleged leaks of classified information.
Sources speaking to CBS and Semafor said Joe Kent — the former Director of the National Counterterrorism Center — is the subject of a federal investigation being led by the FBI’s Criminal Division. Those sources indicated the inquiry has been underway for some time.
The report emerged shortly after Kent resigned in dramatic fashion this week. In his resignation, he challenged the rationale for the conflict and argued there was no urgent danger to the United States, writing: “Iran posed no imminent treat our nation.”
He also asserted that ‘it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,’ a statement that has highlighted tensions within the MAGA coalition between anti-intervention voices and the administration’s close alignment with Israel.
The combat veteran, a longtime Trump supporter, said his opposition is rooted in personal loss. He wrote: “As a veteran who deployed to combat 11 times and as a Gold Star husband who lost my beloved wife Shannon in a war manufactured by Israel, | cannot support sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the loss of American lives.”
Kent’s wife died in a 2019 suicide bombing at a market in northern Syria.
Although the investigation into alleged mishandling of classified information was not widely known when he stepped down, a former White House official appeared to reference it after Kent’s resignation became public.
Former deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich claimed on X that Kent was ‘often at the center of national security leaks’ and alleged that he worked to ‘subvert the chain of command and undermine the President.’
President Trump, however, offered a more measured take on his former appointee while still criticizing his judgment. He said: “I always thought he was weak on security,
“I didn’t know him well, but I thought he seemed like a pretty nice guy. But when I read his statement, I realized that it’s a good thing that he’s out because he said that Iran was not a threat. Iran was a threat.”
After leaving his post, Kent gave just one interview, speaking with conservative commentator Tucker Carlson. In that appearance, he argued there was no intelligence showing Iran had an operational nuclear weapons program, and no indication Israel was preparing to launch a pre-emptive strike on Iran’s leadership.
He further maintained that ‘the Israelis drove the decision’ that has now produced two weeks of warfare involving the US and its longtime regional adversary, with thousands reported dead in Iran and Lebanon as Trump and Netanyahu seek to halt the Islamic Republic’s guerrilla-style retaliation.
Despite his sharp criticism of the decision to enter the conflict following Israel’s decapitation strike, Kent is not aligned with the traditional anti-Trump wing of the Republican Party. He has previously supported Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was stolen and referred to Covid as a ‘scam’.
The FBI and National Counterterrorism Center have been approached for comment.