'Fake news' and 'treason': Trump and Steve Witkoff deny leak to CNN, casting doubt on success of US strike against Iranian nuclear program

President Donald Trump and diplomat Steve Witkoff, the special envoy for the Middle East, called press reports casting doubt on the success of the U.S. attack against the Iranian nuclear program last weekend "absurd."

In a post in all caps on the Truth Social network, the president lashed out at CNN, the first media outlet to publish an exclusive that doubted the success of the attack; and to The New York Times which stated on its website that the main components of the Iranian nuclear program would not have been destroyed during the U.S. bombings, according to a classified report by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA).

"FAKE NEWS CNN, TOGETHER WITH THE FAILING NEW YORK TIMES, HAVE TEAMED UP IN AN ATTEMPT TO DEMEAN ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL MILITARY STRIKES IN HISTORY. THE NUCLEAR SITES IN IRAN ARE COMPLETELY DESTROYED! BOTH THE TIMES AND CNN ARE GETTING SLAMMED BY THE PUBLIC!" Trump posted.

Before Trump, Witkoff denied details of the reports, including claims that centrifuges used for Iran's uranium enrichment were not affected. The senior official said the leaks should be investigated as "treason."

"All three of those had most, if not all, the centrifuges damaged or destroyed in a way that it will be almost impossible for them to resurrect that program, in my view and in many other experts' views who have seen the raw data, it will take a period of years," Witkoff said on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle."

"Leaking that type of information, whatever the information, whatever side it comes out on, is outrageous," the senior diplomat continued. "It's treasonous. So, it ought to be investigated. And whoever did it, whoever is responsible for it, should be held accountable. It could hurt lives in the future."

Witkoff's statements come after various media outlets published details about an assessment by the DIA, the Pentagon's intelligence arm, which found that the U.S. strike against Iran did not destroy Iran's nuclear program and instead only delayed it by a few months.

The White House acknowledged the report's existence but denied its contents in their entirety.

According to CNN, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt called the leak "flat-out wrong." She accused an intelligence official of a low rank of trying to discredit President Trump, who had called the attack successful. She assured that the Iranian nuclear program was destroyed, as had Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth.