Three senior officials at the U.S. Department of Defense were fired on Friday after being suspended for allegedly making unauthorized disclosures of information, people familiar with the matter said. In a joint statement on Saturday, the officials claimed that the Pentagon "has used baseless attacks to discredit our character as we leave office."
US media previously reported that Dan Caldwell, a senior adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, issued the statement on the X platform after being investigated for suspected unauthorized disclosure of information. Darin Selnick, Hegseth's deputy chief of staff, and Colin Carroll, deputy secretary of defense Steve Feinberg's chief of staff, who were also fired this week, signed the statement.
"At this time, we have not been told exactly why we were investigated, whether there is still an ongoing investigation, or whether there was actually an investigation into the 'leaks' in the first place," the trio wrote. "All three of us have served our country with honor in uniform — two of us served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Based on our collective service, we understand the importance of information security and work every day to protect it," they added.
Hegseth's chief of staff, Joe Casper, announced in March that the Defense Department would launch a broad leak investigation, including the use of polygraph tests, after classified Pentagon briefings for Elon Musk were leaked to The New York Times.
The three fired officials said they would continue to support the administration, writing: "While this experience has been unbearable, we remain supportive of the Trump-Vance Administration's mission to make the Pentagon great again and achieve peace through strength. We hope to support these efforts in a different capacity in the future."