President Biden on Thursday said that investigators are “getting close” to identifying the source of a U.S. intelligence leak that revealed details about the war in Ukraine and U.S. spying efforts on some of its closest allies.
“There’s a full-blown investigation going on, as you know, with the intelligence community and the Justice Department, and they’re getting close,” Biden said while visiting Dublin.
The Defense Department and the Justice Department have each opened an investigation into the leak, which the president said prevented him from sharing any updates on the matter.
Despite his top aides this week expressing concerns about some of the contents of the leak as well as the freshness of some documents, some of which are dated from February, Biden said he was more concerned about how it occurred than what was revealed.
“I’m not concerned about the leak,” Biden said. “I’m concerned that it happened. But there’s nothing contemporaneous that I’m aware of that’s of great consequence.”
Several leaked documents that appeared to have classified information about the Russian invasion into Ukraine and other national security topics were posted on social media websites but only discovered last week. The roughly 100 leaked records has created an embarrassing situation for the Biden administration and forced the U.S. to respond by attempting to smooth things over this week with its allies.
One such bombshell revealed that Egypt was attempting to send some 40,000 rockets to Russia in secret. Other information included spy efforts by the U.S. on allies such as Israel and South Korea.
Meanwhile, some officials have been fixated on figuring out the source of the leak and stressed the seriousness of the matter.
The Washington Post reported the leaker worked on a military base.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday that the Pentagon will “turn over every rock” to find the source and that the Biden administration takes “this very seriously.” And, Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly reassured Ukraine of the ironclad support from the U.S. following the leak.
The leaked documents also revealed that Ukraine air defense systems will soon run out, that the Pentagon casted doubt about an expected major counteroffensive from Ukraine this spring, and that South Korea was privately concerned about munitions sent to the U.S. going to Ukraine, among other revelations.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby earlier this week cautioned about the validity of the documents and said that some of them have been doctored. At least one of the documents containing casualty estimates appears to have been altered, but it’s unclear how many were manipulated.