Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is set to lose another top member of his team on Thursday, as former chief of staff Joe Kasper is reportedly moving out of the Pentagon amid a “turf war” that has already led to the unceremonious departures of several high-ranking officials and threats of using polygraph tests on staff.
Kasper, who stepped down from his role of chief of staff last week, had initially planned to stay back at the Pentagon in another role but later decided to move to the private sector due to the ongoing internal conflicts, according to a report from Politico. The recent departures have put Hegseth under immense pressure now.
Another Hegseth Staffer Out of Pentagon
Kasper’s departure comes a month after he issued a memo in which he revealed that an investigation had been launched into leaks of sensitive and classified information across the Department of Defense.
Last week, Pentagon senior adviser Dan Caldwell, ex-deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick, and Colin Carroll, who previously served as chief of staff to the deputy secretary of defense, were all removed from the building following a wave of firings in connection to an ongoing leak investigation.
The investigation was launched days after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth allegedly became furious that details about Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk’s visit to the Pentagon in March were leaked to The New York Times.
Hegseth fumed after learning about the leak, yelling at Adm. Christopher Grady, the then acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, saying, “I’ll hook you up to a f–king polygraph!” sources told The Wall Street Journal on Thursday.
Hegseth also pointed fingers at others he believed might be behind the leak, including Lt. Gen. Doug Sims, director of the Joint Staff, whom he also threatened with a polygraph test.
In a March memo, Kasper mentioned that polygraph exams could be used in the investigation “in accordance with applicable law and policy” to identify those responsible for the leaks. It remains unclear whether anyone was actually subjected to a polygraph test during the probe.
Blame Game Continues
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Caldwell, Carroll, and Selnick, in a joint statement, claimed that “unnamed Pentagon officials” had tarnished their reputations with baseless allegations. They also challenged the official narrative, implying that the so-called “leaks” were not the true reason behind their firings.
“All three of us served our country honorably in uniform – for two of us, this included deployments to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, based on our collective service, we understand the importance of information security and worked every day to protect it,” the trio wrote in a X post made by Caldwell last week.
“At this time, we 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,” they added.
A source told The New York Post that tensions between Kasper and the trio had started even before he launched the leak investigation — and that the firings were actually the result of an internal “turf war.” According to the source, Hegseth’s former chief of staff felt increasingly sidelined as more of his duties were being handed over to Selnick and Caldwell.
The responsibilities that had passed on to Selnick and Caldwell reportedly included making recommendations for appointments, managing high-profile visits, and coordinating official travel — essentially handling many of the top priorities each week.
