Second Defense Official Under Pete Hegseth Reportedly Placed on Leave

Two Department of Defense (DOD) officials are now reportedly on administrative leave Tuesday night amid investigations of internal leaks within the agency.

Newsweek reached out to the Pentagon via email and phone for comment.

Why It Matters

The DOD has faced recent scrutiny after Hegseth and other top Trump Cabinet officials engaged in a Signal group chat, which included a journalist, while discussing war plans.

Signal is an encrypted messaging app. The handling of the sensitive military discussions among Trump’s brass also triggered widespread U.S. security concerns.

Hegseth has repeatedly rebuked the initial report from Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic: “Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that.” National security adviser Mike Waltz also took a swipe at Goldberg last month, calling him the “bottom scum of journalists.”

What To Know

In a march memo, Joe Kasper, Hegseth’s chief of staff, mentioned the investigation into the leaks: “Recent disclosures of national security information involving sensitive communications with principals within the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) demand immediate and thorough investigation.”

Kasper said the investigation would start immediately.

According to Politico, citing a defense official, Deputy Chief of Staff Darin Selnick was escorted out of the Pentagon and placed on administrative leave. Selnick is a retired Air Force officer with a previous career in Veterans Affairs, per his DOD bio.

As deputy chief of staff, Selnick “serves as the principal staff assistant and advisor to the Secretary of Defense for force readiness; force management; health affairs; National Guard and Reserve component affairs; education and training; and military and civilian personnel requirements and management, including morale, welfare, recreation, and quality of life matters,” the bio reads.

Reuters first reported Hegseth’s top adviser, Dan Caldwell, was also escorted out of the building and placed under administrative leave due to “an unauthorized disclosure.”

A defense official also confirmed to Newsweek that Caldwell was placed on leave for “unauthorized disclosure” but wouldn’t elaborate due to the ongoing investigation.

According to Politico, citing a defense official, the investigation is focused on leaks pertaining to military plans for a second aircraft carrier headed to the Red Sea, the Panama Canal, pausing intelligence collection to Ukraine and billionaire Elon Musk’s visit to the Pentagon.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth answers a reporter’s question during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on April 7 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

What People Are Saying

Sean Parnell, chief Pentagon spokesperson, on X, formerly Twitter, last month: “For too long, instances of unauthorized disclosures of national security information have gone uninvestigated at the DoD. @SecDef is committed to aggressively pursuing parties responsible for any leaks and will refer them to law enforcement for criminal prosecution.”

Parnell added,”Efforts to subvert @POTUS command of our Armed Forces, to endanger the lives of our warfighters, or to harm our national security will not be tolerated. ACCOUNTABILITY IS BACK.”