The Defense Department’s hold persists, with a third senior Pentagon official placed on administrative leave amid a continuing inquiry into information leaks within the department.
The U.S. Secretary of Defense informed Hill on Wednesday that Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve A. Feinberg, Chief Secretary of Defense, Colin Carroll, was put on administrative leave on Wednesday. The department had no further details to disclose.
Carroll’s leave follows the suspension of Pete Hegseth’s advisory secretary of defense, who was also removed from the Pentagon.
On Tuesday, the Department of Defense suspended and removed senior adviser Dan Caldwell and deputy chief of staff Darrin Selnick. Caldwell and Selnick had worked for Celling Veterans for America, a nonprofit organization previously led by Hegseth.
According to his LinkedIn, Carroll, an intelligence officer for the US Marine Corps, had previously worked for Anduril Industries, a defense contractor focusing on autonomous systems. He was also employed at Applied Intuition, a California-based software firm.
Carroll was deployed to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom four times. He is a graduate of the US Naval Academy with a degree in aerospace engineering and holds a master’s degree from the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.
The Department of Defense stated that an investigation into “recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information” began in March.
“The investigation will commence shortly and culminate in a report to the Secretary of Defense,” mentioned Hegseth’s Chief of Staff Joe Casper in a message dated March 21. “The report will contain a detailed account of unauthorized disclosures within the Department of Defense and suggestions to enhance such initiatives.”
A Marine Corps veteran, Caldwell served as a public policy advisor at Defense Priorities, a think tank dedicated to foreign policy. A retired Air Force officer, Selnick was a senior adviser to American veterans from 2019 to 2024.
