The bad headlines aren’t over for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
Hegseth is once again on defense Monday morning, after reports broke late Sunday that he allegedly shared typically classified information in a second Signal group chat in mid-March. Four anonymous sources told The New York Times that Hegseth sent Signal messages about planned strikes in Yemen to a group that included his wife, his brother and his personal lawyer.
Also on Sunday, former chief Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot penned a scathing op-ed in Politico calling into question Hegseth’s future tenure as the defense secretary.
“President Donald Trump has a strong record of holding his top officials to account. Given that, it’s hard to see Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remaining in his role for much longer,” Ullyot wrote, publicly noting that Pentagon reporters have been discussing “bigger bombshell stories” with sources.
Ullyot resigned from his position last Thursday, one of four key staffers to leave the building in the same week. Ullyot drove some of the most controversial changes at the Pentagon in recent weeks, including the archive media purge that removed photos of the Enola Gay, the World War II bomber responsible for the nuclear strikes on Japan, and the department’s pages dedicated to Jackie Robinson, the baseball and civil rights figure who served in the U.S. Army.
A source close to the matter confirmed to NOTUS that they are expecting more details about Hegseth’s conduct in the past month to come out this week.
Hegseth told reporters Monday morning that the stories are “a bunch of hit pieces,” calling the media “a bunch of hoaxters.” He posted the interview to his own official social media account.
President Donald Trump also backed Hegseth Monday.
“Here we go again,” Trump told reporters. “He is doing a great job. Ask the Houthis how he’s doing.”
“Pete’s doing a great job, everybody’s happy with him,” Trump continued. “It’s just fake news, they just bring up stories, it sounds like disgruntled employees.”
Ullyot called Hegseth’s start at the Pentagon a “month from hell,” saying that the secretary’s office is willing to spread “flat-out, easily debunked falsehoods anonymously about their colleagues on their way out the door.”
Three Pentagon officials, all who worked directly for Hegseth, were pushed out last week following a probe into leaks about the possibility that Elon Musk would be joining a briefing on China. The investigation is still ongoing.
Dan Caldwell, a senior adviser to Hegseth, Darin Selnick, Hegseth’s deputy chief of staff, and Colin Carroll, Hegseth’s chief of staff, remain on suspension, according to three sources familiar with the matter.
The three Pentagon officials said in a joint statement that they “still have not been told what exactly we were investigated for, if there is still an active investigation, or if there was even a real investigation of ‘leaks’ to begin with.”
The White House came out swiftly in defense of Hegseth — as it has since he was nominated. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday morning that people in the Pentagon are “lying to the mainstream media.”
“This is what happens when the entire Pentagon is working against you,” Leavitt said in an interview the Pentagon’s official press office republished.
Hegseth, too, has denounced the stories about his leadership as smears from the very beginning. Since Trump nominated the former Fox News host, he’s been plagued by allegations of sexual misconduct, alcohol abuse and poor leadership. Last month, his leadership was called into question when The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added to a group chat with high-ranking administration officials planning out a bombing campaign in Yemen. Since then, more reports have questioned security protocols in the Pentagon, including the involvement of Hegseth’s family members in possibly confidential environments.
“We’re changing the Defense Department, putting the Pentagon back in the hands of war fighters, and anonymous smears from disgruntled former employees on old news doesn’t matter,” Hegseth said Monday morning.
The Pentagon said in a statement Monday morning that “there was no classified information in any Signal chat.”
“They relied only on the words of people who were fired this week and appear to have a motive to sabotage the Secretary and the President’s agenda,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement.
Caldwell worked as a public policy advisor at the nonprofit think tank Defense Priorities before going to work for Hegseth. Both he and Selnick had previously worked for Hegseth’s Concerned Veterans for America, the veteran nonprofit that Hegseth led as the CEO.
“Unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door,” Caldwell’s joint statement with Carroll and Selnick said.
“Unfortunately, after a terrible month, the Pentagon focus is no longer on warfighting, but on endless drama,” Ullyot said.
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John T. Seward is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.