The White House has serious doubts about the objectivity of the investigation into the leak of classified information from the Pentagon, which led to the dismissal of three senior aides to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
This is reported by Politico, writes UNN.
Details
According to reports, the suspicion of the leak was initially directed at Hegseth's senior adviser, Dan Caldwell, who, along with two other employees, Derin Selnik and Colin Carroll, was fired last month.
However, the investigation stalled after advisers were told that the identification of the aides may have occurred as a result of illegal wiretapping by the National Security Agency (NSA) without a warrant — which is potentially unconstitutional.
However, the advisers believed this claim was false and complained that Hegseth's personal attorney, Tim Parlatore, who was tasked with overseeing the investigation, provided them with dubious information.
In particular, one of Trump's advisers recently told Hegseth that he did not believe Caldwell or any of the fired aides had leaked anything, and that he suspected the investigation was used to get rid of aides who were involved in feuds with his first chief of staff, Joe Casper.
It is reported that the tense situation is likely to increase pressure on Hegseth ahead of Senate hearings next month and, more broadly, on his office, which has been embroiled in a leak investigation that has been going on for nearly a month without any new evidence or transfer of materials to the FBI.
The Pentagon declined to comment. Meanwhile, a White House spokesman said in a statement:
President Trump is confident in the Secretary's ability to ensure that the senior leadership of the Department of Defense shares their commitment to restoring a military focused on readiness, lethality and excellence.
Let us remind you
The editor of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, reported that he was accidentally added to a chat in Signal, where he became a witness to the discussion of future attacks on Houthi targets in Yemen.
This caused a heated debate in the White House: an investigation has been launched, and there is even talk that national security adviser Mike Voltz should be fired.
In turn, Donald Trump supported Mike Voltz after the incident with the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic getting into a closed chat where military plans were discussed. Trump said the situation did not affect the military operation.