Feds hunt leaker of incomplete intel assessment of Iran strikes: ‘Going to get prosecuted’

WASHINGTON — Trump administration officials tell The Post that the hunt is on for the suspected “low-level paper pusher” who leaked a preliminary Pentagon intelligence assessment questioning the scale of destruction following Saturday’s US airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear sites.

The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) assessment, first reported Tuesday by CNN, stated with a low level of confidence that the US attacks may only have set back Iran’s progress toward an atomic weapon by a few months.

Sources tell The Post that the DIA report was circulated Sunday, just hours after B-2 bombers dropped “bunker busters” on the Fordow enrichment site.

The document’s author, the sources added, also noted the report had been compiled without input from other intelligence agencies — suggesting it did not use CIA or other assets inside Iran to verify the extent of the damage, nor did it rely on audio or online communications that may have been intercepted by the National Security Agency to glean additional information

The assessment expressly refrained from making a firm conclusion about the strikes’ impact on the nuclear program, but was nonetheless labeled “top secret,” the insiders relayed.

“It was based on intel from one day, and it was the day after the strike, so clearly it wasn’t anywhere near a complete assessment,” one administration official said. “The actual assessment admits that it was not coordinated with the intelligence community.”

The leak enraged President Trump by minimizing the impact of the airstrikes, which prompted Iran to agree to a cease-fire Monday to end its conflict with Israel.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s director, Rafael Grossi, said Tuesday the US strikes set back the program “significantly.“

The FBI is leading the inquiry into the leak and the Justice Department is expected to throw the book at the person if they’re caught. Neither agency offered comment for this story.

“The president does not tolerate leakers. That’s part of what made this operation so successful … no one knew about it,” one official said of the surprise attack.

The mission was the first-ever operational use of America’s 30,000-pound bombs — after Israeli 2,000-pound bombs failed to finish off the Iranian sites during the 12-day conflict.

Trump said Wednesday following the annual NATO summit in The Hague that “scum” in the media were “trying to make this unbelievable victory into something less.”

“This person is going to get prosecuted,” said one US official of the leaker.

Another source close to the administration noted that many unauthorized disclosures have been investigated since Trump reclaimed power in January, and said they expected this probe to be “in overdrive” because the culprit ” leaked one early-stage low-confidence report in hopes to undermine a successful mission and bet against America.”

It’s unclear how many officials had access to the report before it contents were shared.

Administration officials suspect the leaker of acting out of anti-Trump bias — rather than whistleblowing — and have taken note fact that the story was broken by Natasha Bertrand of CNN.

Bertrand, then at Politico, also first-reported in October 2020 that 51 intelligence agency veterans claimed Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop, which contained evidence of Democratic candidate Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s foreign business dealings, could be Russian disinformation.