Trump Threatens to Jail Journalists Who Received Leak About US Pilot Downed in Iran

“We think we’ll be able to find it out because 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: They didn't know there was somebody missing until this leaker gave the information. Whoever it was, we think we'll be able to find out, because we're gonna go to the media company that released it and we're gonna say, 'National security. Give it up or go to jail.'[image or embed]— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) April 6, 2026 at 10:27 AM“The country, Iran, put out a major notice... offering a very big award for anybody that captures the pilot, Trump continued. We have to find that leaker, because that’s a sick person. Probably didn’t realize the extent of how bad it was.We’re going to find out, he added. It’s national security, and the person that did the story will go to jail if he doesn’t say.”While the president did not say which media company he was talking about, the first widely cited reporting about the missing second pilot was broadcast Friday by CNN, CBS News, and The New York Times.Israel journalist Amit Segal—who has close high-level links to the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—claimed Monday on his Telegram channel that he was the first to publish information on the second pilot.We are about to see Trump’s promise to find and imprison whoever leaked the info about the second pilot vanish into the ether, US investigative journalist Ryan Grim said on social media Monday in response to Segal's post. Both pilots were successfully rescued. Some critics mocked Trump for presuming that Iranians would not know that the two-seat F-15 is crewed by multiple pilots.Since early in his first administration, Trump has discussed jailing journalists and political foes who leak or refuse to say who disclosed information. The president has also long denigrated journalists as the fake news media and the enemy of the people, sowing distrust of an entire profession that culminated in physical attacks on reporters during the January 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection. Trump's threat comes as the president said he is considering blowing everything up” in Iran if the country's leaders don't reopen the Strait of Hormuz by Tuesday night. This, after Trump said during a nationally televised address last week that he would bomb Iran back to the Stone Ages if the vital waterway is not reopened.