National Security Council Spokesman Warns Journalists Leaked Agency Documents Have No Business ‘On The Front Pages of Newspapers’
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby warned in Monday’s White House press briefing that documents leaked from the Pentagon are not intended for public consumption.
Last Thursday, the Biden administration said that classified war documents detailing plans between the United States and Ukraine were leaked by an unknown source.
“The leaks do not contain exact battle plans, but they present the first known breach of U.S. intelligence since the start of the Ukraine invasion. The documents were leaked on Twitter and Telegram. Administration officials are not sure how they ended up online.”
On Monday, Kirby addressed the situation.
“Can you lay out what the consequences will be for the people or the person responsible for the leaks of these classified information? And secondly, have you been able to gauge what their motive is, just based on how they’ve released this information?” a reporter asked.
“The answer to both questions is, ‘No, I can’t.’ There’s a Justice Department investigation going on right now — a criminal investigation. I’m certainly not gonna say anything that would prejudice that, and that work is just starting. So we don’t know who’s behind this. We don’t know what the motive is, and I think, I can’t remember who asked before, but we don’t know what else might be out there,” Kirby said.
He stressed the importance of not sharing the documents, of which he neither confirmed nor denied the legitimacy.
“Without confirming the validity of the documents, this is information that has no business in the public domain. It has no business, if you don’t mind me saying, on the pages of — front pages of newspapers, or on television. It is not intended for public consumption and it should not be out there,” Kirby stressed.
“In order to protect this country every day the way we do, one of the things that we have to protect is information, not only the information itself, but the manner in which we glean that information,” Kirby added.
Previous government efforts to stop the media from reporting on similar leaks have had little effect, notably regarding 1971’s Pentagon Papers, which were splashed across the front of The New York Times.
This article has been updated to correct Kirby’s current title as National Security Council spokesman. He previously served as the Pentagon spokesman.
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