Ex-counterterrorism official says he wasn't allowed to share concerns about Iran war with Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Kent, the former counterterrorism director who resigned this week over concerns about the Iran war, said Wednesday that he and other senior officials with doubts about the airstrikes “were not allowed” to share them with President Donald Trump.

Speaking on Tucker Carlson's show, Kent said the president relied on a small circle of advisers in making his decision to strike Iran. Kent claimed Israel forced Trump's hand despite what he said was no evidence that Iran posed an imminent threat to the U.S.

“A good deal of key decision makers were not allowed to come and express their opinion to the president,” Kent told the prominent conservative commentator. "There wasn’t a robust debate.”

Kent's comments offer an inside glimpse into Trump's decision to strike Iran on Feb. 28 and underscore the risk that the war could divide his political base. They also suggest there were concerns about the strikes within the administration.

As head of the National Counterterrorism Center, Kent was in charge of an agency tasked with analyzing and detecting terrorist threats. His work was overseen by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who on Wednesday said that it was up to Trump — and Trump alone — to decide whether Iran posed a threat.

Gabbard, a veteran and former congresswoman from Hawaii, has previously criticized talk of military strikes in Iran. She has not said what she thinks of the current strikes and a spokesperson has declined to respond to questions.

Kent declined to say who blocked his access to Trump when Carlson asked.

Kent said no intelligence suggested that Iran was working to develop nuclear weapons, and that he believes Israel was able to force the U.S. to act by promising to act first, potentially putting U.S. interests in the region at risk. He said Israeli officials and U.S. media pundits helped make the argument that Iran was a threat.

“The Israelis drove the decision to take this action,” Kent told Carlson. He cited comments from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and House Speaker Mike Johnson suggesting that Israel’s plans prompted the U.S. to take action.

Kent, who has previous connections to right-wing extremists, said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials personally lobbied Trump, often with information that U.S. officials couldn’t confirm. “When we would hear what they were saying, it didn’t reflect intelligence channels,” Kent said. His claim that an “Israeli lobby” was behind Trump's decision to launch the war has drawn criticism from Jewish groups and others who said it amounted to antisemitism.

Kent chose to make his first public remarks since his resignation during an appearance with Carlson, who also has faced criticism for rhetoric seen as antisemitic.

Trump has offered shifting reasons for the strikes and has pushed back on claims that Israel forced the U.S. to act. On Tuesday, he rejected Kent’s criticism of the war and said he always thought Kent was “weak on security” and if someone in his administration did not believe Iran was a threat, “we don’t want those people.”

“They’re not smart people, or they’re not savvy people,” Trump said. “Iran was a tremendous threat.”

The White House did not immediately respond to questions about Kent's comments on Carlson's show.

As a Green Beret, Kent saw combat in 11 deployments before retiring to join the CIA. He also endured tragedy: His wife, a Navy cryptologist, was killed by a suicide bomber in 2019 in Syria, leaving him with two young sons. Kent, 45, has since remarried.

Kent told Carlson that he decided to resign after it became obvious that his concerns would be ignored.

“I know this path that we’re on, it doesn’t work,” Kent said, saying he determined: "I can't be a part of this in good conscience.”

FILE - Joseph Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem appear before the House Committee on Homeland Security on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

FILE - From left, Joseph Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, and Michael Glasheen, operations director of the National Security Branch of the FBI, raise their arms before the House Committee on Homeland Security on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

FILE - Joe Kent, Director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, speaks during a congressional debate at KATU studios Oct. 7, 2024, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

FILE - Joseph Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, speaks during the House Committee on Homeland Security on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday stormed out of a closed-door briefing on the Jeffrey Epstein files by Justice Department leaders, and said they would push to force Attorney General Pam Bondi to answer questions under oath about the case that has plagued the Trump administration.

Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche went to Capitol Hill to try to quell bipartisan frustration over the Justice Department's handling of millions of files related to Epstein's sex trafficking investigation.

But less than an hour into the briefing, Democrats walked out in protest of the arrangement and said they would press to enforce a subpoena for Bondi to appear for a sworn deposition next month.

“We want her under oath because we do not trust her,” said Democratic Rep. Maxwell Frost.

Asked by reporters after the briefing whether she would comply with the subpoena, Bondi said, “I made it crystal clear I will follow the law." She also defended the department's handling of the Epstein files, saying officials are proud of their work to release millions of documents to the public.

The committee's Republican chairman, Rep. James Comer, accused Democrats of political grandstanding.

“This for us, for the Republicans, it’s about getting answers,” Comer said after the briefing. “For the Democrats, it’s a political game, and they just demonstrated that today. There’s no reason for them to walk out and clutch their pearls and act like they were offended and outraged.”

Justice Department leaders had hoped the release of documents tied to the disgraced financier would put an end to a political saga that has dogged the president’s second term, but the agency remains consumed by questions and criticism over Epstein’s case and its management of the files. Bondi has accused Democrats of using the furor over the documents to distract from Trump’s political successes, even though some of the most vocal criticism has come from members of the president’s own party.

Five Republicans on the committee voted with Democrats to support the subpoena for Bondi to appear for a deposition on April 14. Lawmakers have accused the Justice Department of withholding too many files and criticized the agency for haphazard redactions that exposed intimate details about victims.

The Justice Department has called the subpoena “completely unnecessary," noting that members of Congress have been invited to view unredacted files at the Justice Department and that department leaders have made themselves available to answer questions from lawmakers.

The department has sought to assure lawmakers and the public that there has been no effort to shield President Donald Trump, who says he cut ties with Epstein years ago after an earlier friendship, or any other high-profile figures close to Epstein from potential embarrassment. Justice Department leaders have also rejected suggestions that they have ignored victims and insist that while there is no evidence in the files to prosecute anyone else, they remain committed to investigating should new information come forward.

“I'm not trying to defend Epstein — I'm not,” Blanche said in an interview this week with Katie Miller, who is married to top Trump adviser Stephen Miller. “I do defend the work that this department is doing today, right now, which is going after every single perpetrator anyway, and if there is a narrative that exists that we are ignoring Epstein victims, that is false.”

The documents were disclosed under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the law enacted after months of public and political pressure that requires the government to open its files on the late financier and his confidant and onetime girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. Criminal investigations into the financier have long animated online sleuths, conspiracy theorists and others who have suspected government cover-ups and clamored for a full accounting.

After missing a Dec. 19 deadline set by Congress to release all the files, the Justice Department said it tasked hundreds of lawyers with reviewing the records to determine what needed to be redacted, or blacked out. The Justice Department in January said it was releasing more than 3 million pages of documents along with more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images.

Attorney General Pam Bondi, left, and House Speaker Mike Johnson of La., talk before President Donald Trump arrives for a board meeting of the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center For The Performing Arts in the East Room of the White House, Monday, March 16, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Attorney General Pam Bondi arrives before President Donald Trump attends a women's history month event in the East Room at the White House, Thursday, March 12, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)