Not long after the Trump administration took over, there were several leaks that came out, and the administration has been on the hunt for the source of the leaks ever since.
It would now appear that Hegseth’s staff at the Pentagon was leaking like a 50-year-old pipe, with three key members of his staff having been walked out of the Pentagon.
On Tuesday, top adviser Dan Caldwell was escorted out of the Pentagon and placed on leave.
Caldwell, if you recall, was named as the point man during #SignalGate in one of the messages that were leaked to a reporter from The Atlantic.
The Department of Defense confirmed that Caldwell was put on leave for “an unauthorized disclosure,” but that is about as much information as was revealed.
The department official, who did not want to be named (so isn’t this a leak too?), stated, “The investigation remains ongoing.”
Darin Selnick, the deputy chief of staff for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, was also walked on Tuesday, citing the second top official for Hegseth to be put on leave.
Selnick’s biography states, "Mr. Selnick leverages his extensive government and non-government experience advocating for veterans to position Service members for productive post-separation lives from the first day they put on a uniform.”
Selnick is a retired Air Force officer.
Like Caldwell, Selnick also worked for Concerned Veterans for America before joining Hegseth’s administration.
On Wednesday, strike three took place when Colin Carroll, chief of staff to Deputy Defense Sec. Stephen Feinberg, was walked out of the Pentagon.
A Defense Department official confirmed, "We can confirm that Mr. Carroll has been placed on administrative leave pending investigation. We have nothing additional to provide at this time.”
The Defense Department has been using polygraph machines during this investigation, so it is a reasonable assumption that all three of these men likely failed when questioned about leaking information.
This is now two significant strikes against Hegseth since taking over as Secretary of Defense. I was never high on his nomination in the first place. I thought either Hegseth or Waltz should have been fired over #SignalGate, but nobody was held accountable. Now we have numerous people leaking on his watch, and still no bosses have been fired for this. Strike three looks imminent at this point, so let’s see how Trump handles this.
