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Defense Secretary Pete<\/span> Hegseth has declared war on whistleblowers inside the Pentagon \u2014 at the same time that new reports of his own lax operational security and repeated disclosures of highly classified information to people without security clearances keep emerging.<\/p>\n Current and former Defense Department officials and the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee called out Hegseth, in conversations with The Intercept, for hypocrisy and a lack of accountability.<\/p>\n A defense official who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, confirmed recent reporting by The Associated Press<\/a> that Hegseth had a \u201cdirty\u201d internet connection in his office to use the Signal messaging app on a personal computer and bypass the Defense Department\u2019s security protocols.<\/p>\n Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell issued a non-denial denial to The Intercept, referencing only Hegseth\u2019s Defense Department computer. \u201cThe Secretary of Defense\u2019s use of communications systems and channels is classified,\u201d said Parnell. \u201cHowever, we can confirm that the Secretary has never used and does not currently use Signal on his government computer.\u201d<\/p>\n The defense official said that Hegseth used multiple computers and phones even though personal electronic devices are generally banned, due to security vulnerabilities, from use inside the defense secretary\u2019s office.<\/p>\n Another official said that the double standard at the Pentagon, where rank-and-file employees are suspected of leaks without cause while the chief shares classified attack plans with unauthorized civilians, had bred anger and discontent among staff. \u201cI don\u2019t mind telling you this now,\u201d one official said. \u201cI can\u2019t say I really care too much anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Hegseth used Signal<\/span> to share details about forthcoming strikes in Yemen on March 15 in a group chat \u2014 named \u201cDefense | Team Huddle\u201d \u2014 that included more than a dozen personal and professional contacts including his wife Jennifer, a former Fox News producer who does not work at the Pentagon.\u00a0Also in the group were Hegseth\u2019s brother Phil and Tim Parlatore, who serves as his personal lawyer; both have jobs with the Department of Defense. The Signal group also included many of Hegseth\u2019s then-top aides, including Joe Kasper, his chief of staff; Dan Caldwell<\/a>; and Darin Selnick.<\/p>\n The chat reportedly revealed information also disclosed in a separate Signal chat that same day, which mistakenly included the editor of The Atlantic<\/a>, Jeffrey Goldberg. Unlike the latter chat, the \u201cTeam Huddle\u201d group was created by Hegseth, who shared classified information with people who had no reason to know sensitive attack plans.<\/p>\n \u201cAccountability starts at the top. Secretary Hegseth has refused to take responsibility for his own mishandling of classified information, but has readily punished others for far less,\u201d Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., an Army veteran and ranking member of the Armed Services Committee told The Intercept. \u201cHypocrisy and finger-pointing is no way to lead the U.S. military.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHypocrisy and finger-pointing is no way to lead the U.S. military.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n Five current and former defense officials who spoke with The Intercept castigated Hegseth for the unauthorized disclosures. Four also drew specific attention to the defense secretary\u2019s repeated efforts to root out other Pentagon officials who supposedly leak information.<\/p>\n Kasper, Hegseth\u2019s former chief of staff, called out \u201cunauthorized disclosures of national security information involving sensitive communications with principals within the Office of the Secretary of Defense\u201d and threatened that parties found responsible would be \u201creferred to the appropriate criminal law enforcement entity for criminal prosecution,\u201d in a March memo<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is exactly what Hegseth did multiple times,\u201d said one of the officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n Kasper also threatened to use polygraph tests as part of the investigation of leaks. Less than a month later, news broke that Kasper was leaving his post, amid in-fighting and recriminations about unauthorized disclosures among Hegseth\u2019s aides.<\/p>\n \u201cHegseth is even more unfit for the role of SecDef than we anticipated. In just a few weeks he has personally committed serious security breaches, denied this, and then refused accountability, and he has set the Pentagon and by extension the entire DoD into chaos,\u201d said Wes Bryant, who until recently served as the chief of civilian harm assessments and senior analyst and adviser on precision warfare, targeting, and civilian harm mitigation at the Pentagon\u2019s Civilian Protection Center of Excellence<\/a>. \u201cIt was very clear to me that he would do exactly as he is doing: refusing to hold himself accountable to the very standards, conduct, and regulations that he is charged with holding the force to. But that is the Trump administration and current GOP norm now \u2014 they are above the law, and anything goes.\u201d<\/p>\n Hegseth blamed \u201cdisgruntled former employees<\/a>\u201d for revealing the second Signal chat group. Reports suggest this is a reference to four senior advisers who recently left the Defense Department. Three of them \u2014 Colin Carroll, Caldwell, and Selnick \u2014 were escorted out of the Pentagon and reportedly accused of leaking information to the press. They put out a\u00a0joint statement<\/a>\u00a0on X questioning \u201cif there was even a real investigation of \u2018leaks\u2019 to begin with.\u201d<\/p>\n The fourth adviser, former Defense Department spokesperson John Ullyot, resigned earlier this month and then published an\u00a0opinion piece<\/a>\u00a0detailing the depths of dysfunction at the Pentagon, including the peddling of lies by \u201cHegseth\u2019s team.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDefense Department officials working for Hegseth tried to smear the aides anonymously to reporters, claiming they were fired for leaking sensitive information as part of an\u00a0investigation ordered earlier this month<\/a>,\u201d Ullyot wrote. \u201cYet none of this is true. While the department said that it would conduct polygraph tests as part of the probe, not one of the three has been given a lie detector test. In fact, at least one of them has told former colleagues that investigators advised him he was about to be cleared officially of any wrongdoing.\u201d<\/p>\n A former defense official, who was not authorized to talk to the press by his current employer, referred to the episode as a \u201cfull on shit show.\u201d <\/p>\n Hegseth\u2019s recent purge followed the February firings of top military officers, including former Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Charles Q. Brown and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti.<\/p>\n The Defense Department refused to provide information about the number of \u201cunauthorized disclosures\u201d of national security information since January 20 and how many instances have been referred to law enforcement for \u201ccriminal prosecution\u201d as threatened in Kasper\u2019s March memo.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n