Hegseth says staffers found leaking ‘will be prosecuted' amid Pentagon chaos
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said staffers found to be leaking from within the Pentagon 'will be prosecuted,' as the embattled Cabinet secretary seeks to fend off reports of turmoil from within his department.
Hegseth's push to investigate leaks at the DOD comes as he faces heightened scrutiny for disarray under his leadership at the Pentagon and is part of a broader administration effort to quash leaks across government agencies.
'We're going to investigate and when we investigate, we'll take it anywhere it leads,' Hegseth told Brian Kilmeade of 'Fox and Friends' on Tuesday morning, referencing 'a series of serious leaks at the Pentagon' that had prompted a Defense Department investigation, including information related to Panama Canal plans and Elon Musk's visit to a Pentagon briefing.
'When that evidence is gathered sufficiently — and this has all happened very quickly — it will be handed over to [the Justice Department], and those people will be prosecuted if necessary,' Hegseth said. (Hegseth was previously a 'Fox and Friends' host before taking the top Pentagon job.)
Chaos at the Pentagon has quickly spiraled in recent days, with three
top officials who were removed
in relation to leak probes claiming that they '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.'
Hegseth himself has also been the target of criticism, coming under fire again this week for sharing attack plans in a private Signal chat with his wife, brother and personal lawyer, as
The New York Times reported
. Hegseth found himself in the center of a similar controversy last month after sending sensitive plans in an unsecured chat that mistakenly included Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, in a scandal now dubbed Signalgate.
But Hegseth's troubles haven't ended there. A former Pentagon spokesperson, John Ullyot,
penned an opinion piece in POLITICO Magazine
over the weekend claiming 'the building is in disarray under Hegseth's leadership.' Ullyot resigned from the Pentagon last week.
Hegseth on Tuesday appeared to take aim at Ullyot's credibility, saying: 'Anybody that knows John knows why we let him go.'
President Donald Trump has, for now, shown Hegseth his full support, both speaking privately to the Defense secretary and telling reporters during Monday's White House Easter egg roll 'Pete is doing a great job. Ask the Houthis how he's doing.'
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt took her defense of Hegseth even further, telling 'Fox and Friends' on Monday that 'the entire Pentagon is working against' their boss.
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