The photos of top-secret Pentagon documents first started appearing online on Discord, a chat platform popular with gamers. But where did they come from? And just how many military secrets do they contain? 

Read more:

Last week, reports surfaced that a trove of classified documents was leaked on a number of social media platforms. The documents cover worldwide intelligence briefings, assessments of Ukraine’s defense capabilities, and the highly classified methods the United States uses to collect information. 

But were these documents real? U.S. officials who spoke to The Washington Post said that some of the materials did not appear forged. Still, some documents appeared to be manipulated, including data from the Ukraine war that suggested Russian casualties were not as high as reported.

Today on the show, national security reporter Alex Horton walks through the origin of the leaked documents, how the Justice Department is investigating these revelations, and what consequences these could have for the war in Ukraine, and the rest of the world.