Government ‘Getting Close’ to Finding Pentagon Documents Leaker: Biden

The Pentagon building in Washington on Dec. 26, 2011. AFP via Getty Images

The U.S. government is “getting close” to identifying the individual who allegedly leaked highly classified military documents online, President Joe Biden told reporters while in Dublin on April 13.

When asked to provide an update on the search, Biden said: “I can’t right now. There’s a full-blown investigation going on, as you know, with the intelligence community and the Justice Department. And they’re getting close, [but] I don’t have an answer for you.”

As for his level of concern over the matter, the president added: “I’m not concerned about the leak. I’m concerned that it happened, but there’s nothing contemporaneous that I’m aware of that’s of great consequence.”

Biden’s comments came on the heels of a report published by The Washington Post that alleged the leaker was a “young, charismatic gun enthusiast” who claimed to work on a military base and had shared the classified materials with a Discord chat group.

Citing one of the roughly two dozen members of that chat group, the outlet said the leaker founded the private group, dubbed “Thug Shaker Central,” in 2020 and had identified himself only as “OG.”

However, the source who spoke with The Washington Post claimed to know the leaker’s identity and location, adding that he would not disclose either to law enforcement.

The leaked documents contained alleged highly classified defense and intelligence information about the Ukraine war and other matters and were posted on multiple websites, including Twitter, Telegram, 4chan, and others, according to an Epoch Times review of the materials. The Epoch Times can’t confirm the authenticity of the documents.

White House Comments

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said on April 10 that officials believe some of the documents were altered.

“We know that some of them have been doctored,” he said at a press briefing. “I won’t speak to the validity of all the documents—the ones that … don’t immediately appear to be doctored. We’re still working through the validity of all the documents that we know are out there.”

Kirby added that the Department of Defense was still assessing the matter and the national security implications of what had been leaked.

Noting on April 13 that the assessment was still ongoing, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre urged social media companies to prevent the spread of the documents on their platforms.

“We do believe that social media companies have a responsibility to their users and to the country to manage the private sector infrastructure that they create and now operate,” she said. “So, we do believe that they have a responsibility.

“We normally urge companies to avoid facilitating the circulation of material … detrimental to public safety and national security,” she added. “But any further conversations or how changes are going to happen as it relates to that, I’m certainly not going to speak to that here.”

Victoria Kelly-Clark and Jack Phillips contributed to this report.