Trump Reportedly Demanded DOJ Probe Leaks From Hegseth’s Pentagon

Mark Schiefelbein/AP photo

President Donald Trump has reportedly demanded that acting Attorney General Todd Blanche investigate leaks to reporters who have been covering the Iran war, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

The probe is reportedly focused on officials in the Department of Defense and elsewhere.

Citing administration officials familiar with the matter, Trump complained to Blanche about war-related leaks last month. The acting attorney general responded by pledging to subpoena reporters who have relayed sensitive information about the war. According to the Journal, the president handed Blanche several news reports with a sticky note that read, “treason.” Lawyers at the DOJ have already met with attorneys at the Department of Defense about the matter, the Journal reported, stating:

Blanche vowed to secure subpoenas specifically targeting the records of reporters who have worked on sensitive national security stories, one official said. In one meeting, Trump passed a stack of news articles he and other senior officials thought threatened national security to Blanche with a sticky note on it that said “treason,” another administration official said. Senior Justice Department officials have met with counterparts from the Pentagon to discuss the investigations, according to officials familiar with the meetings.

In April 2025, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was so fed up with leaks from the Pentagon that he reportedly exploded at the acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and threatened to administer a polygraph test, which the Pentagon ultimately administered to other staff members before the White House told the department to stop in July.

The Journal said Trump was especially irked by a report last month in The New York Times, which described in great detail Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s successful attempt to get the president to bomb Iran. The article portrayed high-ranking officials such as Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as skeptical of Netanyahu’s claim that a sustained bombing campaign would likely result in regime change.

The Journal said it had received subpoenas from the administration about its reporting, and denounced the move as a threat to the First Amendment:

The Wall Street Journal received grand jury subpoenas dated March 4 for records of Journal reporters.

The request related to a Feb. 23 article that reported that Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and others at the Pentagon warned the president about the risks of an extended military campaign against Iran. Other news outlets, including Axios and the Washington Post, published similar stories that day. Trump launched the war five days later, on Feb. 28.

In a statement, Ashok Sinha, the chief communications officer of Dow Jones, which publishes the Journal, said: “The government’s subpoenas to The Wall Street Journal and our reporters represent an attack on constitutionally protected newsgathering. We will vigorously oppose this effort to stifle and intimidate essential reporting.”

On March 13, two weeks after the start of the war, the Journal reported that Trump had told aides that Iran would not close the Strait of Hormuz in response to the bombing campaign. More than two months after the war began, the strait remains closed.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!