The former counterintelligence chief who resigned over the ongoing conflict with Iran is reportedly under an FBI investigation for leaking classified information.
Joe Kent, who issued a scathing letter of resignation as National Counterterrorism Center Director on Wednesday, has been accused of improperly sharing classified information, according to Semafor.
Kent said in a post to X on Tuesday that he could not ‘in good conscience support the ongoing war in Iran’ through his role under Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
‘Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby,’ he wrote.
It marks the first major and voluntary departure of a senior Trump administration official since he retook office last year.
Kent, in his resignation letter, accused the president of going back on the non-interventionist principles he campaigned on in 2024.
Trump said he was glad that the top counterterrorism official resigned over the war with Iran.
‘When I read his statement I realized that it’s a good thing that he’s out because he said that Iran was not a threat. Iran was a threat – every country realized what a threat Iran was,’ the president insisted.
Joe Kent issued a scathing letter of resignation as National Counterterrorism Center Director on Wednesday
Kent is closely aligned with the ‘America First’ wing of the Trump administration, and the President says upon news of his resignation: ‘I always thought he was a nice guy’
Kent swears his oath of office to work under Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard as Director of the National Counterterrorism Center
Trump allies had claimed Kent was already in the firing line to lose his job before his resignation.
Kent, who deployed to combat 11 times and lost his wife Shannon in what he calls a war manufactured by Israel, is closely aligned with the populist ‘America First’ wing of the Trump administration.
‘Until June of 2025, you understood that the wars in the Middle East were a trap that robbed America of the precious lives of our patriots and depleted the wealth and prosperity of our nation,’ the former Army Special Forces soldier wrote in his resignation letter.
‘The time for bold action is now,’ he urged. ‘You can reverse course and chart a new path for our nation, or you can allow us to slip further toward decline and chaos. You hold the cards.’
Former Trump deputy Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich suggested that Kent was already on track to be fired and called him a ‘crazed egomaniac’ responsible for ‘national security leaks’ out of his agency.
‘He spent all of his time working to subvert the chain of command and undermine the President of the United States,’ Budowich wrote on X upon news of his departure. ‘This isn’t some principled resignation—he just wanted to make a splash before getting canned. What a loser.’
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Kent’s insistence that Iran posed no immediate threat to the US is the ‘same false claim that Democrats… have been repeating over and over.’
She said that Trump had ‘strong and compelling evidence that Iran was going to attack the United States first.’
This story is developing
