The FBI has launched an investigation into a former top Trump official who said Iran posed "no imminent threat" to America in his resignation letter.
Joe Kent, who led the National Counterterrorism Center, was the first senior official to resign as a result of the Iran war.
But he is now under investigation for allegedly leaking classified information, Semafor reported on Wednesday.
It is understood he was under investigation before he resigned, with one source describing the probe as being months-long.
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In a letter on social media, Mr Kent said he could not "in good conscience" support the ongoing war, which is now in its third week.
"Iran posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby," Mr Kent said.
In an interview with political commentator Tucker Carlson, Mr Kent said Iran was asked if Iran was closed to developing nuclear weaponry.
“No. They weren't three weeks ago when this started, and they weren't in June either," he said, referring to US strikes on nuclear facilities on June 22.
Joe Kent has resigned after declaring Iran did not pose an imminent threat and alleging Israel influenced the President to go to war
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He added that there was "no intelligence" Iran had been working towards to a nuclear weapon following the now-dead Ayatollah's forbidding of the production and using any form of weapon of mass destruction in 2003.
The former Trump official alleged that Israel built an "echo chamber" to influence the President to go to war with Iran, and accused them of using the "same tactic" to convince the US to go to war with Iraq.
Mr Kent, a Republican Congressional candidate in 2022 and 2024, said he supported Mr Trump's foreign policies in his previous administration and campaigns, but after his own combat experience and "disastrous Iraq war", he could not support the President.
In response to his letter on social media, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the claim that Iran posed no imminent threat was a lie repeated by "Democrats and some in the liberal media".
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Karoline Leavitt hit back at Joe Kent's allegations, saying the President can determine what is or is not an imminent threat
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She added Donald Trump has the ability to determine what "does and does not constitute a threat", and said the President had given Iran every opportunity to surrender its nuclear programme and ballistic missiles.
She said Kent's allegation Israel had influence in the decision to strike Iran was "absurd", "insulting", and "laughable".
A decorated combat veteran, Mr Kent first joined the military at age 17, after the September 11 attacks.
He went on to serve in several tours throughout Iraq and met his wife Sharron in the military in December 2014.
His wife died in 2019, becoming the first woman to die in combat in three years after an Isis suicide bomber killed 19 people in Manbij, Syria.
He added he could not support the "sending the next generation off to fight and die" in a war with no benefit.
Joe Kent first rose to national prominence by defeating Jaime Herrera Beutler in a primary election
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Mr Kent, who briefly served as acting chief of staff to Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, said his wife died in a war manufactured by Israel.
He retired from military service shortly after his wife's death, and wrote columns in various American outlets speaking out against the War on Terror.
He launched his political career by challenging incumbent Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler, one of the Republicans who voted to impeach Mr Trump in 2021, for her Washington state seat in the primary.
He won the primary, but would lose the eventual election in an upset to Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, amid allegations he was tied to political commentator Nick Fuentes and the Proud Boys group.
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