Three Pentagon officials were fired Friday after being placed on administrative leave amid continuing investigation into information leaks at the Department of Defense.
Posted in a joint statement from Dan Caldwell, Colin Carroll and Darrin Selnick Caldwell X accountthey allegedly “an unknown Pentagon official slandered our character with an unfounded attack on his way out the door.”
“All three of us were honored to our country. For the two of us, this included the development of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and based on our collective services, we understood the importance of information security and worked to protect it every day,” the statement continued.
On Tuesday, the Department of Defense suspended and escorted Caldwell, senior adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegses, and Selnick, the department’s deputy chief of staff.
A Marine Corps veteran, Caldwell was a public policy advisor to Defense Priorities, a think tank focused on foreign policy. A retired Air Force officer, Selnick worked as a senior adviser to American veterans from 2019 to 2024.
The U.S. Secretary of Defense told Hill on Wednesday that Secretary of Defense Steve A. Feinberg, Secretary of Defense, was placed on administrative leave Wednesday. The department had no more information to share at the time.
Three officials were fired on Friday, According to In multiple Report.
Sectoral officials said in March that the building had launched an investigation into “recent fraudulent disclosure of national security information.”
“The investigation will begin soon and will reach its peak with a report to the Secretary of Defense,” wrote Hegses Chief of Staff Joe Casper in a note on March 21. “The report includes a complete record of unauthorized disclosures within the Department of Defense and recommendations to improve such efforts.”
Politico reported on Tuesday Leaks under investigation by the department include moving a second aircraft carrier into the Red Sea, a military operational plan for the Panama Canal, a visit to the department of tech billionaire Elon Musk, and halting the sharing of intelligence news with Ukraine, citing officials familiar with the matter.
However, in their joint statement, Caldwell, Carol and Sernick say that if the investigation is still active and “even an actual investigation of a ‘leak’ from the start”, they have not been told exactly what they were investigated for.
“This experience has been merciless, but we continue to support the Trump Vance administration’s mission to make the Pentagon great again and achieve peace through power,” the statement read. “We hope to support these efforts in a variety of capabilities in the future.”
