{"id":17899,"date":"2025-10-17T13:22:29","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T13:22:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/?p=17899"},"modified":"2025-10-17T13:22:29","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T13:22:29","slug":"top-hegseth-aide-escorted-out-of-pentagon-in-leak-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/?p=17899","title":{"rendered":"Top Hegseth Aide Escorted Out of Pentagon in Leak Probe"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Photo<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>Martin Walsh<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span>June 27, 2025<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/header>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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This article may contain commentary
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A senior advisor to Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was escorted out of the Pentagon and placed on administrative leave, according to a Defense Department official.<\/p>\n

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Dan Caldwell was suspended over an \u201cunauthorized disclosure\u201d of information amid an ongoing investigation into leaks from within the Pentagon. Caldwell, a foreign policy realist, previously worked with the restraint-oriented think tank Defense Priorities and Concerned Veterans for America, which was formerly led by Hegseth. He has been a vocal advocate for significantly reducing the U.S. military presence in Europe and withdrawing troops from Iraq and Syria.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon recently announced an effort to identify leakers from within the Defense Department regarding \u201crecent unauthorized disclosures of national security information.\u201d The announcement said that the DoD would use polygraph exams to identify who was allegedly leaking sensitive or secret data.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe use of polygraphs in the execution of this investigation will be in accordance with applicable law and policy,\u201d DOD Chief of Staff Joe Kasper\u00a0wrote in a memo. \u201cThis investigation will commence immediately and culminate in a report to the Secretary of Defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe report will include a complete record of unauthorized disclosures within the Department of Defense and recommendations to improve such efforts,\u201d the memo said.<\/p>\n

The memo also noted that \u201cinformation identifying a party responsible for an unauthorized disclosure\u201d would be referred for criminal prosecution.<\/p>\n

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Caldwell\u2019s close ties to Hegseth were highlighted in a leaked Signal chat about U.S. strikes on the Houthis, in which Hegseth identified him as the Pentagon\u2019s point of contact for the operation. The private conversation was exposed after National Security Advisor Mike Waltz accidentally added The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg to the group.<\/p>\n

This leak is separate from the one involving someone leaking classified U.S. intelligence about the bombs dropped on Iran.<\/p>\n

Days of vehement opposition to reporting by CNN and the New York Times suggest that Trump is angrier than normal about the leak of a study claiming that a dozen 30,000-pound \u201cbunker buster\u201d bombs achieved nothing to halt Iran\u2019s nuclear enrichment program.<\/p>\n

Trump has pointed fingers at members of Congress and claimed that the White House will no longer provide as frequent briefings on military operations.<\/p>\n

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force General Dan Caine are having a press conference at the Pentagon. I\u2019ll bring you any news updates here.<\/p>\n

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General Dan Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated that on Monday morning, they received \u201cindications and warnings that Iran intended to attack US bases in the region\u201d and evacuated the majority of their people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to read some of the assessment and assessments provided. Whether fake news, CNN, MSNBC or New York Times, there has been fawning coverage of preliminary assessment. I have not had a chance to read it, every outlet reported on preliminary assessment from DIA. I\u2019m looking at it right now, preliminary, day and a half after the actual strike, it admits it requires 82s weeks to aaccumulate necessary data, it is preliminary,\u201d Hegseth said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt points out it is not coordinated with the intelligence community at all, there is low-confidence in this report, its there are gaps in information and says multiple linchpin assumptions are what this is, that means your entire premise is predicateod a linchpin. If you are wrong, everything else is wrong. This report acknowledges likely severe damage. Leaked because someone had agenda to muddy water and make it look like this historic strike wasn\u2019t successful. Get to the chairman in a moment, he will layout the particulars for you based on his professional military experience,\u201d Hegseth added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Martin WalshJune 27, 2025 \u00a0Getty Images This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion. A senior advisor to Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was escorted out of … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17900,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17899"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17901,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17899\/revisions\/17901"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cndailynews.store\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}