Probe Launched Into Leaked Classified Documents

An interagency investigation into the major leak of classified documents is being led by the Pentagon’s Office of Intelligence and Security and could take months to complete, CNN reported.

The probe’s purpose will be to determine if sources and methods were comprised. Many of the documents, marked “top secret,” were posted on a social media platform earlier this year, CNN said.

The investigation will also attempt to determine the scope of the leak. Officials have acknowledged they do not know if more classified documents are still circulating online.

The Pentagon’s probe will not be focused on who leaked the documents, but will re-examine how the Defense Department distributes classified documents.

“Way too many people have access to very sensitive information,” a senior U.S. official told CNN. The official noted that “thousands” of people likely saw the documents before they went online.

“We’re still investigating how this happened, as well as the scope of the issue,” Chris Meagher, assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs, told reporters on Monday.

A senior Defense Department official said: “There have been steps to take a closer look at how this type of information is distributed and to whom. We’re also still trying to assess what might be out there.”

Milancy Harris, deputy undersecretary for intelligence and security, will lead the probe.

The Associated Press reported that the leak might have started on Discord, a chatroom on a social media platform popular with gamers.

Held on the Discord platform, which hosts real-time voice, video, and text chats, a discussion originally created to talk about a range of topics turned to the war in Ukraine. As part of debates about Ukraine, according to one member of the chat, an unidentified poster shared documents that were allegedly classified, first typing them out with the poster’s own thoughts, then, as of a few months ago, beginning to post images of papers with folds in them.

The AP said the posts appear to have gone unnoticed outside of the chat until a few weeks ago, when they began to circulate more widely on social media and got picked up by major news outlets. The leaks have alarmed U.S. officials and also sparked a Justice Department investigation.