Biden says feds 'getting close' to finding classified document leaker

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Biden says classified leak documents investigation 'getting close'

President Biden said Thursday that federal officials are "getting close" in the investigation into leaked classified documents.

President Biden said Thursday that the U.S. is "getting close" to finding the person responsible for leaking Pentagon documents that the Department of Defense has described as containing "sensitive and highly-classified material." 

"I can’t right now [give an update]. There is a full-blown investigation going on with the intelligence community and Justice Department and they are getting close," Biden told reporters during his trip to Ireland. "I don’t have an answer for you." 

The president also said "I’m concerned that it happened but there is nothing contemporaneous that I’m aware of that is of great consequence." 

Bidens comments came after The Washington Post published a report claiming the person behind the leak is a man in his 20s who worked on a military base and shared the classified information on the chat app Discord. 

A Pentagon team "continues to review and assess the veracity of the photographed documents that are circulating on social media sites," officials say.  (STAFF/AFP via Getty Images)

LEAKER OF CLASSIFIED US INTELLIGENCE WORKS ON MILITARY BASE, POSTED DOCUMENTS ON DISCORD: REPORT 

The outlet reportedly spoke to a fellow member of the chat group the leaker ran on Discord. The Post's teenage source claimed he knew the leaker's real name and where he lived but said he would not help authorities locate him. 

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also told reporters Thursday that the Department of Defense has "taken steps to further restrict access to sensitive information" in the wake of the leaks. 

"We are certainly reviewing the national security implications of the disclosure," she said. "And I can add that, you know, to mitigate the impact the release of these documents have on our U.S. national security and also on our allies and partners as well. 

On Tuesday, Fox News reported that the leak of the documents may have come from outside the Pentagon, based on conversations with a variety of American defense and intelligence officials.  

The source that spoke to The Washington Post told the newspaper that the leaker ran a Discord group called "Thug Shaker Central," and identified himself only as "OG." 

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Biden made the remarks about the document leak investigation during a state visit to Ireland on Thursday, April 13.

The teen, who the Post said had parental permission to speak to the outlet, said "OG" shared troves of classified material with him and roughly two dozen other members of the chat group. 

Members of the group, described by the Post's source as "tight-knit," reportedly included foreign citizens from Russia and even Ukraine. 

Many of the posts were written out by "OG," who then reportedly got tired of writing out the intelligence and later resorted to taking and posting pictures of the documents and sharing them with members. 

The Washington Post reports "OG" obtained the sensitive information from his job working at an unnamed "military base."  

The source told the Post he believed "OG" only shared the documents to keep members of the group "in the loop" and was not hostile to he U.S. government nor was he working to help another country. 

"He is not a Russian operative. He is not a Ukrainian operative," the source told the Post. 

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has revealed to Fox News on Wednesday that there is a "small U.S. military presence" at the American embassy in Ukraine after being asked about leaked Pentagon documents suggesting there are U.S. Special Forces operating inside the war-torn country.  (Anatolii Siryk/Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images/Fox News)

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The top-secret intel included movements of high-ranking political leaders, updates on military forces, detailed charts of battlefield conditions in Ukraine and satellite images of the aftermath of Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian facilities. Other documents, according to the report, included the potential trajectory of North Korean ballistic nuclear missiles that could reach the U.S. and pictures and information on the surveillance technology attached to the Chinese spy balloon that the Biden administration allowed to float across the U.S. in February. 

The source claimed "OG" did not intend to be a whistleblower. However, the secret documents were leaked on Feb. 28 by another teenage user from the group and spread throughout the internet. 

Fox News' Sarah Tobianski contributed to this report.