Trump admin begs critics not to 'read too much' into Iran deal leak amid panicked scramble

The Trump administration appeared to scramble Wednesday morning after CNN obtained new details on the tentative peace deal between the United States and Iran, with one White House official dismissing it as inaccurate, and another urging people to not “read too much into the language.”

The 14-point memorandum of understanding (MOU) reached between Washington and Tehran Sunday was obtained by CNN from a U.S. official, and suggests that Iran would gain access to a $300 billion development fund, have all U.S. sanctions lifted, and have all funds frozen or restricted by the United States be released.

Details of the tentative deal, which have circulated online for days, have sparked outrage among hawkish conservative figures and Republican lawmakers, many of whom argue that the deal awarded far too many concessions to Iran and would embolden the country going forward.

While not outright denying the details of the alleged tentative deal, one U.S. official suggested that the details were largely irrelevant, and urged onlookers to not “read too much” into them.

“People shouldn’t read too much into the language of the MOU,” a U.S. official told CNN’s Alayna Treene on the condition of anonymity. “What’s more important than the actual document is the understandings we have with each other... We came up with language that allows (Iran) to say what they need to say for their domestic politics.”

Reacting to the U.S. official’s remarks, The Bulwark’s Sam Stein was left dumbfounded.

“Sorry but what?” he wrote Wednesday in a social media post on X to his nearly 500,000 followers.

Steven Cheung, White House director of communications, took a different route in denying the authenticity of the MOU as reported by CNN.

“The supposed text of the MOU that was obtained by CNN does not reflect the language of the actual MOU,” Cheung wrote in a statement published on social media.

Prominent podcaster and liberal commentator Tommy Vietor challenged Cheung to back up his denial.

“Then release the language big guy,” Vietor wrote in a social media post on X to his more than 530,000 followers. “This is an easy problem to solve.”