Investigators are “getting shut” to figuring out who was behind the leak of extremely categorised US intelligence paperwork, President Joe Biden mentioned on Thursday, as Washington races to comprise the fallout from the discharge of delicate details about the warfare in Ukraine and past.
“There’s a full-blown investigation occurring, as you recognize, with the intelligence neighborhood and the justice division, and so they’re getting shut,” Biden informed reporters in Eire.
Greater than 100 categorised paperwork had been leaked on social media, beginning on the messaging platform Discord, and a few had been additionally revealed on Telegram and Twitter final week. They largely concentrate on the warfare in Ukraine but additionally embrace data particulars intercepted by the US, reminiscent of from allies together with South Korea and Israel.
US officers mentioned on Thursday they’re beginning to assess the fallout from the leak whilst they attempt to perceive its full extent.
The Pentagon final week referred the matter to the US justice division, which has opened a legal investigation.
The Pentagon can be conducting its personal evaluation on who has entry to delicate data and the way it’s distributed. The defence division has already begun clamping down on who receives each day intelligence briefings and in addition to its most delicate data, US officers mentioned Thursday.
US media reported on Thursday that the chief of the Discord group the place the paperwork had been initially leaked is a 21-year-old member of the intelligence wing of the Massachusetts Air Nationwide Guard.
Biden tried to minimize the quick penalties of the disclosure. Whereas the paperwork don’t comprise battle plans for Ukraine’s coming counteroffensive in opposition to Russia, they provide a extra downbeat image of the state of Ukrainian forces and their capacity to make important positive aspects on the battlefield within the coming months.
“I’m involved that it occurred, however there’s nothing contemporaneous that I’m conscious of that’s of nice consequence proper now,” the president mentioned.