(TheLastPatriotNews.com) – The federal government has launched an “interagency investigation” over a significant leak of classified documents revealing US security and military intelligence, including about Russia’s war against Ukraine.
The classified papers leak is believed to have started last month in a Minecraft group on the Discord social media platform, with new records appearing in recent days.
The probe into that is being led by the US Defense Department’s Office of Intelligence and Security, and Milancy Harris, deputy undersecretary for intelligence and security, CNN reported, as cited by Newsmax.
The interagency effort comes after the US Department of Justice launched a probe.
The new investigation could take months and will seek to establish the leak’s size and sources. There have been reports that at least some of the papers marked “top secret” have been falsified or cooked by Russian intelligence due to the information they contain about Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
US officials admitted they could not say whether more classified papers were circulating on the web.
Yet, the main focus of the investigation will be on how the Defense Department distributes classified intelligence information.
“Way too many people have access to very sensitive information,” an unnamed senior US official told CNN.
The official hypothesized that “thousands” of people probably saw the leaked documents before they were posted online.
“There have been steps to take a closer look at how this type of information is distributed and to whom. We’re also still trying to assess what might be out there,” commented another source described as a senior Defense Department figure.
US officials speaking on the record have offered little information about the matter.
“We’re still investigating how this happened, as well as the scope of the issue,” Chris Meagher, assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs, told reporters.
According to an Associated Press report, information from the allegedly authentic classified papers has been leaking on Discord for months, as early as January, but that went unnoticed publically.
That began when a Minecraft group discussion about the war in Ukraine saw an unidentified member started typing out information allegedly from classified US government documents.
The poster, who added commentary to the quotes, later began uploading photographs of papers with folds in them.
AP points out that the public only noticed the leaked papers several weeks ago when they began appearing on more social media and were covered by major news media.
