BREAKING: Joe Kent under FBI investigation for leaking classified information: report

Laura Ingraham broadcast the allegation, saying "Joe Kent, the former Director of the United States National Counter Terrorism Center, this is from Semaphor, he just resigned. He's now under FBI investigation for allegedly leaking classified information, and the investigation predates his departure."

https://twitter.com/KarluskaP/status/2034417512981381483?s=20

Kent submitted his resignation on Tuesday, saying "After much reflection, I have decided to resign from my position as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, effective today. I cannot in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran. Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby."

https://twitter.com/joekent16jan19/status/2033897242986209689

"I support the values and the foreign policies that you campaigned on in 2016, 2020, 2024, which you enacted in your first term. Until June of 2025, you understood that the wars in the Middle East were a trap that robbed America of the precious lives of our patriots and depleted the wealth and prosperity of our nation. In your first administration, you understood better than any modern President how to decisively apply military power without getting us drawn into never-ending wars. You demonstrated this by killing Qasam Solamani and defeating ISIS," he said.

After his resignation, he quickly made appearances on the podcasts of Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson while Tulsi Gabbard was hauled before the Senate to answer for his resignation. Kent lost his first wife to to combat operations.

In response to the resignation, the White House press secretary issued a statement saying that Kent's resignation letter included "many false claims."

https://twitter.com/PressSec/status/2033932810709315865

"This is the same false claim that Democrats and some in the liberal media have been repeating over and over. As President Trump has clearly and explicitly stated, he had strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the United States first. This evidence was compiled from many sources and factors. President Trump would never make the decision to deploy military assets against a foreign adversary in a vacuum," Leavitt said.

"Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism," she continued. "The Iranian regime is evil. It proudly killed Americans, waged war against our country, and openly threatened us all the way up to the launch of Operation Epic Fury. Iran was aggressively expanding their short-range ballistic missiles to combine with their naval assets to give themselves immunity – meaning they would have a degree of a capabilities that would give them immunity to hold us and the rest of the world hostage. The regime aimed to use those ballistic missiles as a shield to continue achieving their ultimate goal – nuclear weapons."

Kent, a former Green Beret, was confirmed to his position in July 2025. He is a decorated combat veteran who served 11 deployments with Army Special Forces, and was placed in charge of an agency that created in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks to coordinate intelligence and prevent future acts of terrorism. The appointment was praised by many in the Senate.