The FBI is investigating a former senior intelligence official who resigned in protest over the Iran war on suspicion of leaking classified information, a person familiar with the matter told NBC News. The probe, according to the source, began before Joe Kent — a retired Green Beret and longtime Trump ally — announced Tuesday that he was stepping down as director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Semafor first reported the investigation.
Kent, who reported to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, said in his resignation that he disagreed with the decision to go to war with Iran and did not believe the regime posed an “imminent threat,” countering claims from the Trump administration.
The White House directed questions to the FBI, which declined to comment. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday night.
In his first interview since resigning, Kent told Tucker Carlson he expected efforts to discredit him over his protest but said he would welcome a chance to speak with President Donald Trump. Kent said he understood critics would try to undermine him but believed the president listens to many voices and might be open to reassessing the situation.
Gabbard disputed Kent’s portrayal of events on the social platform X, writing that determining what constitutes an imminent threat is the president’s responsibility and that her office’s role is to coordinate and present the best intelligence available. At a congressional hearing Wednesday, Gabbard declined to state whether she believed Iran’s nuclear program represented an imminent threat.
Kent is a decorated veteran who served 11 combat deployments during a 20-year Army Special Forces career before joining the CIA. His wife, Shannon Kent, was killed in a 2019 terrorist bombing in Syria while serving as a Navy cryptologist.
In his resignation letter, Kent said he had supported Trump’s values during the president’s first term but could not back what he described as a war influenced by Israel’s interests. He wrote that he could not support “sending the next generation off to fight and die in a war that serves no benefit to the American people nor justifies the cost of American lives.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back on X, asserting that Trump had “strong and compelling evidence” that Iran planned to attack the United States first.
The investigation into the alleged leak and the high-profile resignation add to mounting tensions within the administration and among its allies over policy toward Iran. Officials have not publicly detailed the scope of the FBI inquiry or identified any specific classified material at issue.