President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to find and jail the journalist who first reported that a U.S. troop was awaiting rescue after his plane was shot down in Iran last week, unless that journalist revealed their source.
Speaking from the White House, Trump said a “leak” told an unidentified reporter that while one pilot had been rescued shortly after an F-15 fighter jet crashed in Iran on Friday, a second officer had not yet been found. Multiple news organizations had reported on the crash, and Trump on Monday vowed to find the leaker.
“We’re going to go to the media company that released it and we’re going to say, ‘national security, give it up or go to jail,’” Trump said. He added that the person who shared the information is “a sick person.”
Two crew members of the F-15E Strike Eagle had self-ejected from the cockpit on Friday after Iranian military forces struck their plane. Though the pilot was quickly rescued, the weapons systems officer was not immediately found, and a large-scale rescue mission began.
When the officer was finally found, Trump said, he was “injured quite badly” and was “bleeding rather profusely” and had treated his own wounds before contacting American forces to transmit his location. His rescue involved 155 aircraft — including four bombers, 64 fighters, 48 refueling tankers and 13 rescue aircraft, Trump added.
Trump called both rescues “extraordinary” but added that “we’re working very hard to find that leaker.”
“They basically said that we have one and there’s somebody missing,” Trump said. The media, he added, didn’t know anyone was missing until the unidentified leaker provided the information.
“I think anybody would understand that they put that [rescue] mission in great risk,” he said.
While many states and Washington have “shield laws” in place to protect journalistic sources, no federal protections exist. The government may try to compel reporters to disclose their sources if the reported information is deemed vital to national security.
Then-New York Times reporter Judith Miller was jailed for months in 2005 under civil contempt for refusing to reveal her source in an investigation into who leaked Valerie Plame’s identity as a covert CIA officer in 2003.
She later was released from jail and revealed her source — then-Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, Scooter Libby — after she said Libby gave his permission to do so.
Because of their report, Trump said, “the entire country of Iran knew that there was a pilot that was somewhere on their land that was fighting for his life” and the rescue mission became a “much more difficult operation.”
“The country, Iran, put out a major note, as you all saw it, offering a very big award for anybody that captures the pilot,” he said. “So in addition to a hostile, very talented, very good, very evil military, we had millions of people trying to get an award.”
It is unclear how long the war, now entering its seventh week, will last. Trump this weekend threatened to unleash “hell” by striking civilian infrastructure in the region if Iran does not make a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
