WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Pentagon is once again the center of attention on another big shakeup. The White House Press Secretary claims the entire Pentagon is working against Secretary Pete Hegseth after officials said some employees were leaking info and trying to sabotage the President’s agenda. This is the latest scandal at the Defense Department following recent reports of the Secretary sharing sensitive information in two separate Signal group chats.
Over the weekend, three top officials were fired after an investigation into alleged leaks. According to online sources, the Secretary’s Chief of Staff requested an investigation into leaks from the Pentagon but they don’t detail which leaks they were referring to. According to a report from Politico, the leaks were about information sharing on military operations on the Panama Canal, halting intelligence gathering for Ukraine, Elon Musk’s visit to the Pentagon and more. Other reports share a growing distrust and disarray among civil servants and senior military officials at the Pentagon.
The White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on FOX News the entire Pentagon is working against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. She was asked during a press briefing about that:
“They were Pentagon employees who leaked against their boss to news agencies in this room,” said Leavitt. “It’s been clear since day one in this administration that we are not going to tolerate individuals who leak to the mainstream media particularly when it comes to sensitive information and the Secretary of Defense is doing a tremendous job. He is bringing monumental change to the Pentagon and there’s a lot of people in this city who reject monumental change and I think quite frankly we’ve seen a smear campaign on the Secretary of Defense since the moment President Trump announced his nomination before the United States Senate.”
The three employees Leavitt referred to are: Senior advisor Dan Caldwell; the Secretary’s Deputy Chief of Staff Darin Selnick; and Colin Carroll, the Chief of Staff to a Deputy Defense Secretary. They released a joint statement on ‘X’ saying:
“We are incredibly disappointed by the manner in which our service at the Department of Defense ended. Unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door. All three of us served our country honorably in uniform – for two of us, this included deployments to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, based on our collective service, we understand the importance of information security and worked every day to protect it. At this time, we still have not been told what exactly we were investigated for, if there is still an active investigation, or if there was even a real investigation of “leaks” to begin with. While this experience has been unconscionable, we remain supportive of the Trump-Vance Administration’s mission to make the Pentagon great again and achieve peace through strength. We hope in the future to support those efforts in different capacities.”
The President is defending the Secretary and his work.
“This is just fake news,” said the President on Monday. “Sounds like disgruntled employees.”
This is the latest incident to add to the Pentagon’s spotlight in the news following reports the Secretary released sensitive information in two separate Signal chats. One included top security advisors, who accidentally added the editor of the Atlantic in the group chat, where they report the Secretary shared military plans against rebels in Yemen. According to the New York Times, in the second separate Signal group chat, which included the Secretary’s wife, who does not work for the Defense Department and others, the Secretary shared similar sensitive information on that same military strike in Yemen.
On Monday, the Secretary defended his brief tenure leading one of the most powerful departments.
“This is what the media does: they take anonymous sources, disgruntled former employees and they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations,” said Sec. Hegseth. “Not gonna work with me because we’re changing the Defense Department, putting the Pentagon back in the hands of warfighters. And anonymous smears from disgruntled former employees on old news doesn’t matter.”
Many Democrats are already calling on the Secretary to resign for the Signal scandals. The White House maintains they have full confidence in the Secretary.
