00:00President Trump was stunned to learn that U.S. intelligence indicates new Iranian supreme leader
00:05Mosheba Khamenei may be gay, and that his father, the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
00:10feared his suitability to rule the Islamic Republic for that reason, the post can reveal.
00:16Trump couldn't contain a surprise and laughed aloud when he was briefed on the intel, according to sources.
00:22Others in the room also found it, quote, hilarious, and joined the president's reaction,
00:26while one senior intelligence official has not stopped laughing about it for days,
00:31said one person familiar with the briefing. The shocking claim was described to the post by two
00:35intelligence community officials and a third person close to the White House. All three sources say
00:40the implausible-sounding allegation is viewed as credible by U.S. spy agencies. Two of the sources
00:47said the intelligence indicates that Mosheba has had a long-term sexual relationship with his childhood
00:52tutor. The third source said the intelligence indicated the affair was with a person who
00:57formerly worked for the Khamenei family. Mosheba, who is believed to have been wounded in the same
01:02February 28th airstrike that killed his father and other members of his family, has made aggressive
01:07sexual overtures to men caring for him, possibly while under the influence of heavy medication,
01:13one of the post's sources said. U.S. spy agencies do not have photographic evidence of the 56-year-old's
01:19alleged sexual attraction to men, but the sources insisted the tip is solid, with one saying it was
01:24derived from one of the most protected sources that the government has. The fact that this was
01:29elevated to the highest of high levels shows you there's some confidence in this, added a second
01:33source. Most of us purported sexual orientation had been whispered about inside Iran since at least
01:39the May 2024 helicopter crash that killed then-president Ibrahim Raisi, Ali Khamenei's presumed favorite to be the
01:46next supreme leader, sources said. Mosheba's father and others suspected he was gay, and that was
01:53something that people were spreading to try to stop his ascension, one of the post's sources explained.
01:58Within the U.S. government, it's been a pretty closely held piece of information, one insider said.
02:04Homosexual conduct is illegal in Iran, though the government does allow surgical sex change
02:08operations, which some gay men reportedly are pressured into undergoing to avoid criminal penalties.
02:14Sodomy is a capital offense in the nation of 93 million people, with some gay Iranians infamously
02:20hanged from construction cranes as a warning to others. One of the post's sources said that although
02:25it's generally frowned upon to out people against their will, there's a clear case of hypocrisy to
02:30justify doing so against Mosheba. If there was ever a time where it was okay to out somebody,
02:36it would be when it's a leader of a repressive Islamic theocracy that hangs gay people by cranes,
02:41this person said. Mosheba Khamenei's current whereabouts and the status of his recovery
02:46from the February 28th airstrikes remain murky. The White House did not provide comment on this report.
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