The reported inquiry predates Joe Kent’s departure on Tuesday from his post as director of the national counter-terrorism center
The resignation of Joe Kent, a senior counter-terrorism official who spoke out against the US war in Iran, took a dramatic turn on Wednesday with a report that he is under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) over an alleged leak of classified information.
The inquiry predates Kent’s departure on Tuesday from his post as director of the national counterterrorism center, where he had overseen the analysis of terrorist threats, according to Semafor and CBS News. The FBI declined to comment on the existence of any such investigation.
The report came as Kent, the first senior member of the administration to quit over the war, gave his first media interview since stepping down. Speaking to the rightwing commentator Tucker Carlson, he claimed that dissenting voices were effectively frozen out of the decision-making process that led to US airstrikes on Iran on 28 February.
“A good deal of key decision makers were not allowed to come and express their opinion to the president,” Kent said on The Tucker Carlson Show podcast. “There wasn’t a robust debate.”
