Sources have informed multiple publications that the FBI is investigating combat veteran Joe Kent over an alleged leak of classified information. Four individuals with direct knowledge of the probe told Semafor that it predates Kent's resignation on Tuesday as director of the National Counterterrorism Center.

A source familiar with the case told Axios that Kent was suspected of leaking information to Tucker Carlson and another conservative podcaster and that the bureau is looking into whether the allegedly leaked information pertained to Israel and Iran.

'Israelis drove the decision.'

When asked for comment, the White House referred Blaze News to the FBI. The FBI declined to comment. Blaze News reached out to Kent for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Kent — a retired Green Beret and former CIA officer whom President Donald Trump nominated to be NCTC director in February 2025 and the U.S. Senate confirmed in a 52-44 vote in July — wrote in a post accompanying his resignation letter addressed to Trump and published Tuesday that Iran "posed no imminent threat to our nation" and that "it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby."

The ex-intel official said further in the letter:

Early in this administration, high-ranking Israeli officials and influential members of the American media deployed a misinformation campaign that wholly undermined your America First platform and sowed pro-war sentiments to encourage a war with Iran. This echo chamber was used to deceive you into believing that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, and that should you strike now, there was a clear path to victory. This was a lie and is the same tactic the Israelis used to draw us into the Iraq war that cost our nation the lives of thousands of our best men and women.

The president told reporters on Tuesday, "I read his statement — and I always thought he was a nice guy — but I always thought he was weak on security, very weak on security."

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Photographer: Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

"When I read his statement, I realized that it's a good thing that he's out, because he said that Iran was not a threat. Iran was a threat — every country realized what a threat Iran was. The question is whether they wanted to do something about it," said Trump.

Trump later shared an image of a tweet that Kent posted in January 2020, imploring Trump, then in his first term, to "wipe Iran's ballistic capability out and get our troops out of Iraq — they are only targets now."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed on Tuesday that Kent's resignation letter was replete with "false claims" and noted that "the absurd allegation that President Trump made this decision based on the influence of others, even foreign countries, is both insulting and laughable."

On Wednesday, Kent appeared with Tucker Carlson, who said about the Iran strikes: "Joe Kent was right. Therefore, Joe Kent must be destroyed. And there is, of course, this ongoing effort to do that — to dismiss Joe Kent as a tool of the Islamists or a leaker."

During the interview, Kent explained to Carlson his reasons for leaving the administration, his misgivings about the conflict with Iran, and his support for the president and Trump's previous policies.

Referring to remarks made earlier this month by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Kent told Carlson — who was denounced on March 5 by the president following months of criticism — that the "Israelis drove the decision" to attack Iran.

Intelligence showed that Iran was neither on the verge of obtaining a nuclear weapon nor planning "to launch this big sneak attack," Kent added.

He further claimed that Trump was siloed when it came to the issue of Iran, stating that "a good deal of key decision-makers were not allowed to come express their opinion to the president."

'He quit because he's under investigation.'

Kent also claimed that when it came to Charlie Kirk's assassination, "we're not really even allowed to look into that at all." Kent even intimated that the assassination might have something to do with Kirk's vocal opposition to a possible regime-change war in Iran.

"One of President Trump's closest advisers who is vocally advocating for us to not go to war with Iran and for us to rethink, at least, our relationship with the Israelis, and then he's suddenly publicly assassinated, and we're not allowed to ask any questions about that — it's a data point," said Kent. "It's a data point that we need to look into."'

One of the sources reportedly familiar with the FBI investigation into Kent told Axios, "He left quite an online paper trail and he has been monitored for months."

"He's going to try to say this was in retaliation for his resignation," continued the source, "but it's the other way around: He quit because he's under investigation — and he knew it."

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