Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth blamed “disgruntled” former staffers at the Pentagon for leaks to the media about reports that he allegedly shared sensitive military secrets in a second Signal group chat.
Speaking Tuesday on “Fox & Friends,” Mr. Hegseth pushed back against allegations that anything he might have shared in a Signal group chat could have put the lives of military personnel in danger.
He called the Signal discussions “informal” and “unclassified,” and said the accusations were part of an ongoing scheme to cause problems for the White House.
“That’s what it’s all about — trying to get at President Trump and his agenda,” Mr. Hegseth said.
The latest reports came after two top advisers to Mr. Hegseth, Dan Caldwell and Darin Selnick, were escorted from the Pentagon last week as part of an official inquiry into the unauthorized disclosure. Colin Carroll, chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen A. Feinberg, was also removed from the building after being questioned by investigators.
“We found some folks that we believe were not holding to the protocols that we hold dear here at the Defense Department,” Mr. Hegseth said. “They have been moved on and that investigation continues.”
The three now former Pentagon staffers posted a statement on X over the weekend saying they were “incredibly disappointed” about how their Defense Department service came to an end.
“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,” they wrote. “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.”
Mr. Hegseth said leaks inside the Pentagon are a major problem and that the details of the ongoing Pentagon inquiry will be handed over to the Justice Department if the case warrants criminal prosecution.
“If one or two of these guys is exonerated after the investigation — great,” Mr. Hegseth said. “It’s not my job to protect them. It’s my job to protect national security.”
