Hegseth Downplays His Department's 'Leaked' Assessment of US Strike on Iran: 'It Was Low Confidence'

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth downplayed the Pentagon's assessment of the U.S. strike on Iran over the weekend, after the report claiming that the strikes did not result in significant damage was "leaked" to CNN.

Hegseth accompanied President Donald Trump to the NATO Summit Wednesday, where they were asked by reporters about the validity of the report.

"The 30,000 pounds of explosives and capability of those munitions — it was devastation underneath Fordow. And the amount of munitions, six per location — any assessment that tells you it was something otherwise is speculating with other motives," Hegseth said.

Details about the report created by the Defense Intelligence Agency, an agency of Hegseth's Pentagon, was revealed to CNN Tuesday. Multiple anonymous sources told the outlet that the sites struck by the U.S. on Saturday were damaged, but not "obliterated" as Trump had previously declared.

As one source said, the report allegedly indicated that the strikes had only set Iran's nuclear capabilities back "months."

"We know that because when you actually look at the report — by the way it was a top secret report — it was preliminary, it was low confidence. You make assessments based on what you know—," Hegseth said before Trump jumped in.

"And it said it could be very devastating, very serious," the president said.

"Moderate to severe, and we believe far more likely, severe and obliterated. So this is a political motive," Hegseth continued.

The defense secretary announced the FBI would be assisting in a "leak investigation" to determine how the report was shared with the press.

Various Trump administration officials condemned the report and its implications following its initial publication Tuesday night.

"This alleged 'assessment' is flat-out wrong and was classified as 'top secret' but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio also pushed back against the report in an interview with Politico Wednesday morning, insisting that Iran suffered "significant, very significant, substantial damage" to multiple components of their work.