Secrets, Signal, and Scandal: Inside the Ouster Rocking Trump's Pentagon

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Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, a former Fox News personality turned Pentagon chief, was confirmed by a razor-thin Senate vote and vowed to purge perceived “deep state” elements from the Department of Defense (The Washington Post). Now his tenure faces its fiercest crisis yet as one of his closest aides, Dan Caldwell, has been ousted in a leak investigation that has rocked the Pentagon.

A Top Adviser Escorted Out of the Pentagon

On Tuesday, Dan Caldwell – a senior adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth – was abruptly placed on administrative leave and escorted from the Pentagon by security officers (POLITICO). Caldwell’s removal came after he was identified as part of an internal probe into unauthorized disclosures of sensitive Defense Department information (Reuters) (AP News). Pentagon officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Caldwell’s sudden downfall was tied to a leak investigation, though they have not publicly detailed which leak is at issue.

The suspension of Caldwell, a Marine Corps veteran and longtime Hegseth confidant, marks a striking turn for an official who, until days ago, sat at the right hand of the Defense Secretary. Caldwell was one of several hand-picked advisers working closely with Hegseth and had been highlighted as a key point of contact in high-level military planning (AP News). His ouster – first reported as a Reuters exclusive – underscores the widening fallout from a series of leaks that have plagued the Trump administration’s national security team.

Caldwell was not the only casualty. According to defense officials, a second Trump appointee, Darin Selnick, the Pentagon’s deputy chief of staff, was also placed on leave and escorted out in connection with the same probe. The dual suspensions, not previously disclosed before this week, hint at a broader house-cleaning as the administration scrambles to contain the damage. Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, had issued a memo on March 21 ordering an aggressive investigation into “recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information,” even raising the possibility of polygraph tests for Pentagon personnel. That investigation has now zeroed in on the Secretary’s own inner circle.

“Unauthorized Disclosure”: The official cause for Caldwell’s removal was an “unauthorized disclosure” of classified defense information. A U.S. official confirmed that Caldwell’s building access has been suspended pending further investigation. “The investigation remains ongoing,” the official told Reuters, declining to specify what was leaked or to whom. It is not yet clear whether Caldwell is accused of directly sharing secrets with a journalist or another party, but the implications – both legal and political – are serious.