Trump threatens to jail journalists in hunt to find leaker of Iran fighter jet story [View all]

Source: NBC News

April 6, 2026, 2:25 PM EDT / Updated April 6, 2026, 3:41 PM EDT


President Donald Trump threatened to jail journalists at the media outlet that first reported a second airman was missing following the shoot-down of an American fighter jet in Iran on Friday. Both the pilot and the "back seater" were recovered by American forces in what the president, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine described as separate, daring operations during a White House news conference on Monday.

The pilot was recovered within several hours, while the second airman was stranded in Iranian territory until early Sunday, when U.S. forces landed and rescued him. Trump said that he would pursue whoever leaked information about the second airman — which the U.S. government had hoped to keep secret in order to prevent him from being captured or killed by Iran — and pressure the news media to assist in that investigation.

“We think we’ll be able to find it out,” Trump said. “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.’”. A White House official declined to name the news outlet in a text exchange with NBC News, citing a desire to avoid tipping off the journalists. The White House press office told NBC News that "an investigation is underway."

Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said in response to Trump's threat against the unnamed news outlet: "News organizations have a First Amendment right to publish stories about matters of public importance—including stories the government would prefer to suppress."

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-iran-press-conference-jail-journalist-fighter-jet-pilot-rcna266958