Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen says the leaker who gave classified information to his own outlet should be prosecuted.
He held nothing back in a short X post addressing the WaPo exclusive, which detailed reporting warnings given to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth by “several U.S. military leaders” regarding the Iran war.
Look:
Whoever leaked this is a traitor and ought to be prosecuted https://t.co/yrJWrguNiO
— Marc Thiessen (@marcthiessen) August 31, 2026
“Whoever leaked this is a traitor and ought to be prosecuted,” he wrote.
According to the article, the information came from the August 14 Secretary of Defense Orders Book, which is classified, and the story’s reporters cited sources familiar with the assessment. These sources spoke anonymously because they were effectively leaking classified information to the American media.
Thiessen’s post received some pushback from the outlet’s foreign policy columnist Josh Rogin, who cited a WaPo Communications statement about the story’s publication. But as the columnist pointed out in a follow-up, he only said the leaker should be punished, not The Post for publishing the information.
I said whoever LEAKED it, Josh. You do get that a government official leaking classified information to the press is committing a crime, right? https://t.co/tsQuMq7dgw
— Marc Thiessen (@marcthiessen) August 31, 2026
“I said whoever LEAKED it, Josh. You do get that a government official leaking classified information to the press is committing a crime, right?” Thiessen asked.
Rogin wasn’t having it, though, insisting that leaking classified information isn’t a big deal if it’s deemed “newsworthy.”
You do get that reporters publish classified information in certain cases where it is determined by their editors that publishing the information is newsworthy and in the public interest and after considering any national security implications and they do that usually without…
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) August 31, 2026
“You do get that reporters publish classified information in certain cases where it is determined by their editors that publishing the information is newsworthy and in the public interest and after considering any national security implications and they do that usually without their colleagues calling publicly for their sources to be arrested, right?” he asked.
X users weighed in:
The WaPo is an anti-American media outlet actively hoping our nation fails. Reading their posts, you can actually sense their desire for something bad to happen to our country and its Armed Forces. They truly are a sickening group of propagandists.
— Marv-Ellis (aka Malcolm Twain) (@marvalous80) August 30, 2026
Ahh yes. The pretend story from the usual anon sources and “experts” that WaPo and the msm just won’t let go away despite zero factual evidence to support it. Great job
— Tex Stark (@mwaresh1) August 30, 2026
Funny the Washington post and the Iranian media are pushing the same story word by word. Must be the same “source”
— Juanderful (@Juan23456) August 30, 2026
True or not can you imagine being so anti American that you would spread this shit for our enemies to read?
— No more mean tweets
(@AndrewDeikel) August 31, 2026
