President Donald Trump on Monday threatened to jail the journalist who first reported a second U.S. airman was still missing inside Iran after an F-15E Strike Eagle was shot down April 3, warning the reporter must reveal their source or face prosecution.

“We’re going to go to the media company that released it and we’re going to say national security, give it up or go to jail,” Trump said at a White House press conference. He described the source as “a sick person” who “put this mission at great risk,” saying the leak forced Iranian forces to mount a manhunt before U.S. forces completed the rescue.

Amit Segal, a senior political correspondent for Israel’s Channel 12, publicly identified himself Monday as the first to break the news. He told the New York Post he would not disclose his source. “I’m not sure I was the first,” Segal said. “And anyway, I will protect my sources.”

Segal posted to X at 11:19 a.m. EST on April 3, citing a “western source,” that one crew member had been recovered. Channel 12 contributor Barak Ravid had posted to X nine minutes earlier that two crew members were unaccounted for after the shootdown.

Western source: One of the American crew members was successfully rescued.

— Amit Segal (@AmitSegal) April 3, 2026

🚨🇺🇸🇮🇷One of two crew members of a U.S. fighter jet that was shot down over Iran was located and rescued by U.S. special forces and the search for the second is ongoing, per Israeli official and a source with knowledge. My report on @axios https://t.co/8CR6n5WqJA

— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) April 3, 2026

Segal’s access to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s inner circle has been widely reported in Israeli media, a detail that complicates any U.S. legal effort to compel source disclosure.

Trump confirmed Monday that he spoke with Netanyahu on Sunday, and the two governments have coordinated throughout Operation Epic Fury.

The administration has not addressed the diplomatic dimension of a potential subpoena targeting a journalist with direct ties to its primary regional partner.

The rescued weapons systems officer (WSO), a colonel from the 48th Fighter Wing’s 494th Fighter Squadron at RAF Lakenheath, evaded Iranian forces for nearly 48 hours before U.S. special operations forces recovered him April 5.

This is how the American navigator survived in the heart of Iran:

He climbed through mountainous terrain to a ridge 7,000 feet above sea level, equipped with little more than a pistol, a radio, and a locator beacon.

Meanwhile, American fighter jets attacked Iranian convoys…

— Amit Segal (@AmitSegal) April 5, 2026

Trump said the mission involved 155 aircraft, including four bombers, 64 fighters, 48 refueling tankers, and 13 rescue aircraft.

No federal shield law protects journalists from national security-based demands to disclose sources.

In 2005, New York Times reporter Judith Miller was jailed under civil contempt for refusing to name her source in the Valerie Plame investigation.

The FBI seized phones and laptops from a Washington Post reporter in a separate leak probe in January 2026.