Three senior advisers to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth—Dan Caldwell, Darin Selnick, and Colin Carroll—were abruptly ousted this week amid an expanding probe into alleged information leaks.
The trio, all veterans and key figures in the Trump-Vance administration’s efforts to reform the Pentagon, have publicly condemned their dismissals as unjust and politically motivated.
In a joint statement, Caldwell—an advisor to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; Selnick, Hegseth’s deputy chief of staff; and Carroll, chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg—expressed profound disappointment over their treatment, asserting that they were never informed of the specific allegations against them.
Read their full joint statement below:
“We are incredibly disappointed by the manner in which our service at the Department of Defense ended. Unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door.
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.
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.
While this experience has been unconscionable, we remain supportive of the Trump-Vance Administration’s mission to make the Pentagon great again and achieve peace through strength. We hope in the future to support those efforts in different capacities.”
Joint statement from Dan Caldwell, Colin Carroll, and Darin Selnick:
We are incredibly disappointed by the manner in which our service at the Department of Defense ended. Unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door. All…
— Dan Caldwell (@dandcaldwell) April 19, 2025
The investigation reportedly centers on unauthorized disclosures related to Elon Musk’s controversial Pentagon visit, military operations in the Red Sea and Panama Canal, and intelligence support to Ukraine.
The Pentagon has not released any statement regarding the dismissal of the top officials.
The Gateway Pundit previously reported that Dan Caldwell, who was also a part of the Mike Waltz Houthi Signal 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 staff to Deputy Secretary of Defense Stephen Feinberg, were also placed on leave and escorted out of the Pentagon.
By Friday, reports confirmed that Joe Kasper, Chief of Staff to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, was stepping down amid the internal shakeup following a leak investigation.
According to Fox News, Kasper allegedly harbored a “deep vendetta” against Caldwell, Carroll, and Selnick. Kasper was said to have led the effort to identify those leaking information to the media.
“This is not about interpersonal conflict,” a Pentagon official told Fox News. “There is evidence of leaking. This is about unauthorized disclosures, up to and including classified information.”
That same day, it was confirmed that Caldwell, Selnick, and Carroll had all been placed on administrative leave earlier in the week and were officially terminated on Friday.
The post “Unnamed Pentagon Officials Have Slandered Our Character with Baseless Attacks”: Hegseth Aides Ousted in Leak Probe Fire Back, Say They Were Never Told What They Were Accused Of appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.