Pentagon Insiders on Hegseth Leak Hypocrisy: “Full On Shit Show”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has declared war on whistleblowers inside the Pentagon at the same time that new reports of his own lax operational prevention and repeated disclosures of highly classified information to people without defense clearances keep emerging Current and former Defense Department officers and the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee called out Hegseth in conversations with The Intercept for hypocrisy and a lack of accountability A defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution authenticated current reporting by The Associated Press that Hegseth had a dirty internet connection in his office to use the Signal messaging app on a personal computer and get around the Defense Department s precaution protocols Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell issued a non-denial denial to The Intercept referencing only Hegseth s Defense Department computer The Secretary of Defense s use of communications systems and channels is classified revealed Parnell However we can confirm that the Secretary has never used and does not as of now use Signal on his executive computer The defense official mentioned that Hegseth used multiple computers and phones even though personal electronic devices are generally banned due to safety vulnerabilities from use inside the defense secretary s office Another official mentioned that the double standard at the Pentagon where rank-and-file employees are suspected of leaks without cause while the chief shares classified attack plans with unauthorized civilians had bred anger and discontent among staff I don t mind telling you this now one official stated I can t say I really care too much anymore Hegseth used Signal to share details about forthcoming strikes in Yemen on March in a group chat named Defense Group Huddle that included more than a dozen personal and professional contacts including his wife Jennifer a former Fox News producer who does not work at the Pentagon Also in the group were Hegseth s brother Phil and Tim Parlatore who serves as his personal lawyer both have jobs with the Department of Defense The Signal group also included plenty of of Hegseth s then-top aides including Joe Kasper his chief of staff Dan Caldwell and Darin Selnick Related U S Representatives Called Signal a Tool for Terrorists and Criminals Now They re Using It The chat reportedly revealed information also disclosed in a separate Signal chat that same day which mistakenly included the editor of The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg Unlike the latter chat the Crew Huddle group was created by Hegseth who shared classified information with people who had no reason to know sensitive attack plans Accountability starts at the top Secretary Hegseth has refused to take responsibility for his own mishandling of classified information but has readily punished others for far less Sen Jack Reed D-R I an Army veteran and ranking member of the Armed Services Committee communicated The Intercept Hypocrisy and finger-pointing is no way to lead the U S military Hypocrisy and finger-pointing is no way to lead the U S military Five current and former defense agents who spoke with The Intercept castigated Hegseth for the unauthorized disclosures Four also drew specific attention to the defense secretary s repeated efforts to root out other Pentagon officers who supposedly leak information Kasper Hegseth s former chief of staff called out unauthorized disclosures of national precaution information involving sensitive communications with principals within the Office of the Secretary of Defense and threatened that parties revealed responsible would be referred to the appropriate criminal law enforcement entity for criminal prosecution in a March memo This is exactly what Hegseth did multiple times explained one of the authorities who spoke on the condition of anonymity Kasper also threatened to use polygraph tests as part of the review of leaks Less than a month later news broke that Kasper was leaving his post amid in-fighting and recriminations about unauthorized disclosures among Hegseth s aides Hegseth is even more unfit for the role of SecDef than we anticipated In just a scarce weeks he has personally committed serious precaution breaches denied this and then refused accountability and he has set the Pentagon and by extension the entire DoD into chaos noted Wes Bryant who until lately served as the chief of civilian harm assessments and senior analyst and adviser on precision warfare targeting and civilian harm mitigation at the Pentagon s Civilian Protection Center of Excellence It was very clear to me that he would do exactly as he is doing refusing to hold himself accountable to the very standards conduct and regulations that he is charged with holding the force to But that is the Trump administration and current GOP norm now they are above the law and anything goes Related Hegseth Purges Defense Advisory Board After MAGA Came For It Hegseth blamed disgruntled former employees for revealing the second Signal chat group Reports suggest this is a reference to four senior advisers who in recent weeks left the Defense Department Three of them Colin Carroll Caldwell and Selnick were escorted out of the Pentagon and reportedly accused of leaking information to the press They put out a joint report on X questioning if there was even a real review of leaks to begin with The fourth adviser former Defense Department spokesperson John Ullyot resigned earlier this month and then published an opinion piece detailing the depths of dysfunction at the Pentagon including the peddling of lies by Hegseth s association Defense Department bureaucrats working for Hegseth tried to smear the aides anonymously to reporters claiming they were fired for leaking sensitive information as part of an research ordered earlier this month Ullyot wrote Yet none of this is true While the department noted that it would conduct polygraph tests as part of the probe not one of the three has been given a lie detector test In fact at least one of them has communicated former colleagues that investigators advised him he was about to be cleared officially of any wrongdoing A former defense official who was not authorized to talk to the press by his current employer referred to the episode as a full on shit show Hegseth s modern purge followed the February firings of top military officers including former Joint Chiefs Chair Gen Charles Q Brown and Chief of Naval Operations Adm Lisa Franchetti The Defense Department refused to provide information about the number of unauthorized disclosures of national shield information since January and how a multitude of instances have been referred to law enforcement for criminal prosecution as threatened in Kasper s March memo It remains unclear whether Hegseth will be held to account for his actions Hegseth is currently under inquiry for his use of Signal in sharing classified information with Goldberg and others That inquiry is being conducted by Acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins because President Donald Trump fired Robert Storch from his Senate-confirmed Pentagon inspector general role as part of his firings of inspectors general across the cabinet in January Reed the Rhode Island senator has called for the inspector general to expand its examination to include the Defense Unit Huddle chat He must forthwith explain why he reportedly texted classified information that could endanger American servicemembers lives on a commercial app that included his wife brother and personal lawyer announced Reed Hegseth s personal phone number which he used for his Signal chats was lately available on WhatsApp and Facebook as well as Sleeper com a fantasy football and sports betting site where he used the username PeteHegseth Experts say that this puts his Signal account at high pitfall for targeting by hackers and foreign adversaries In response to a specific question by The Intercept about whether Hegseth s disclosures of national safety information have been referred to law enforcement for criminal prosecution a Pentagon spokesperson demurred We won t be able to provide anything on this topic at the moment the unnamed spokesperson replied by email The post Pentagon Insiders on Hegseth Leak Hypocrisy Full On Shit Show appeared first on The Intercept