Probe into US defence leaks unlikely despite history of similar inquiries

Washington: FBI director Kash Patel was not part of a Signal chat in which other Trump administration national security officials discussed detailed attack plans, but that didn’t spare him from being questioned by lawmakers this week about whether the premier law enforcement agency would investigate.
Patel made no such commitments during the course of two days of Senate and House hearings, declining to comment on the possibility and testifying he had not personally reviewed the text messages that were inadvertently shared with the editor -in-chief for The Atlantic.
Even as President Trump insisted “it’s not really an FBI thing,” the reality is FBI and justice department for decades have been responsible for enforcing Espionage Act statutes governing the mishandling – whether intentional or negligent – of national defence info like the kind shared on Signal.