Speaker Johnson: Feds Investigating Leak of Israel Plans

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Federal officials are investigating the leak of two classified intelligence documents that describe the United States’ interpretations of Israel’s planning for a retaliatory strike on Iran, House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday.

“The leak is very concerning,” the Louisiana Republican said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “There are some serious allegations being made. An investigation is underway, and I will get a briefing on that in a couple of hours.”

The documents, attributed to the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, said that Israel is continuing the movement of military assets to conduct a strike in response to Iran’s attack on Oct. 1.

The top documents, sharable within the United States, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, were posted online to Telegram and first reported by CNN and Axios.

Johnson said he spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to “encourage him.”

“He’s done an extraordinary job, I think, prosecuting that war. And if he had taken Joe Biden’s advice, they’d be in a much weaker position right now,” said Johnson. “I think that the United States needs to stand unequivocally by our ally there right now.”

He added that Israel is “on a precipice” of a “new era of security and freedom,” and he believes that the end of the conflict is coming soon.

“But we can’t equivocate,” said Johnson. “We can’t appease Iran. Now is the time for a maximum pressure campaign against the head of the snake. It’s not Hezbollah and Hamas and the proxies that are ultimately the threat. It is Iran itself, and I think we need to recognize that reality right now.”

Meanwhile, Johnson said that it is not his place to try to micromanage Israel’s strategy, as that would “do harm to the overall cause.”

“I think that’s what the Biden/Harris administration has tried to do at too many points along the way,” Johnson added. “They have withheld weapons systems when Congress in a bipartisan manner duly enacted that these things would be supplied.”

Johnson also commented that former President Donald Trump is correct when he says on the campaign trail that the Israel war didn’t happen under his watch.

“It didn’t because we did not empower it,” he said. “The Biden/Harris policies did. They relaxed sanctions on Iran, which allowed them to have the resources and the time and the opportunity to do what happened on Oct. 7 more than a year ago, that great atrocity, and to continue all of this.”

The United States must also continue to stand by Isreal, as “this is a good-versus-evil conflict,” said Johnson.

“Israel is a state,” the speaker said. “It is the most stable democracy in the Middle East. And Iran is a terrorist regime. And it works through terrorist organizations to do great harm to our allies. And, ultimately, what they hope to do is to us. And that’s a real threat to us right now as well.”