Three senior advisers to Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth—Dan Caldwell, Darin Selnick, and Colin Carroll—have been abruptly ousted this week amid an increasing probe into alleged data leaks.
The trio, all veterans and key figures within the Trump-Vance administration’s efforts to reform the Pentagon, have publicly condemned their dismissals as unjust and politically motivated.
In a joint assertion, Caldwell—an advisor to Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth; Selnick, Hegseth’s deputy chief of employees; and Carroll, chief of employees to Deputy Protection Secretary Stephen Feinberg—expressed profound disappointment over their therapy, asserting that they have been by no means knowledgeable of the precise allegations towards them.
Learn their full joint statement under:
“We’re extremely disenchanted by the style wherein our service on the Division of Protection ended. Unnamed Pentagon officers have slandered our character with baseless assaults on our manner out the door.
All three of us served our nation honorably in uniform – for 2 of us, this included deployments to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And, based mostly on our collective service, we perceive the significance of knowledge safety and labored daily to guard it.
Presently, we nonetheless haven’t been advised what precisely we have been investigated for, if there’s nonetheless an energetic investigation, or if there was even an actual investigation of “leaks” to start with.
Whereas this expertise has been unconscionable, we stay supportive of the Trump-Vance Administration’s mission to make the Pentagon nice once more and obtain peace by means of power. We hope sooner or later to assist these efforts in numerous capacities.”
Joint assertion from Dan Caldwell, Colin Carroll, and Darin Selnick:
We’re extremely disenchanted by the style wherein our service on the Division of Protection ended. Unnamed Pentagon officers have slandered our character with baseless assaults on our manner out the door. All…
— Dan Caldwell (@dandcaldwell) April 19, 2025
The investigation reportedly facilities on unauthorized disclosures associated to Elon Musk’s controversial Pentagon go to, navy operations within the Purple Sea and Panama Canal, and intelligence assist to Ukraine.
The Pentagon has not launched any assertion concerning the dismissal of the highest officers.
The Gateway Pundit beforehand reported that Dan Caldwell, who was additionally part of the Mike Waltz Houthi Sign chat group, was escorted out of the Pentagon on Tuesday for “an unauthorized disclosure.”
Deputy Chief of Staff Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll, chief of employees to Deputy Secretary of Protection Stephen Feinberg, have been additionally placed on leave and escorted out of the Pentagon.
By Friday, reports confirmed that Joe Kasper, Chief of Workers to Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth, was stepping down amid the interior shakeup following a leak investigation.
In keeping with Fox Information, Kasper allegedly harbored a “deep vendetta” towards Caldwell, Carroll, and Selnick. Kasper was stated to have led the hassle to establish these leaking data to the media.
“This isn’t about interpersonal battle,” a Pentagon official advised Fox News. “There may be proof of leaking. That is about unauthorized disclosures, as much as and together with categorized data.”
That very same day, it was confirmed that Caldwell, Selnick, and Carroll had all been positioned on administrative depart earlier within the week and were officially terminated on Friday.
