A 3rd prime Pentagon official has been placed on depart amid an investigation into leaks on the Division of Protection.
The newest official probably implicated within the probe is Colin Carroll, the chief of employees to Deputy Protection Secretary Stephen Feinberg, a number of retailers reported on Wednesday.
Carroll’s suspension follows the removing of Dan Caldwell, a senior adviser to Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Darin Selnick, the Pentagon chief’s deputy chief of employees, from their posts on Tuesday.
“We can confirm that Mr. Carroll, Mr. Caldwell and Mr. Selnick have been placed on administrative leave pending investigation,” a protection official advised The Put up.
Caldwell was placed on administrative depart for “an unauthorized disclosure,” a Pentagon official mentioned Tuesday.
Selnick had been beneath investigation in the identical leak probe that implicated Caldwell, based on reviews.
Each males had been escorted out of the Pentagon by safety.
The protection official on Wednesday wouldn’t say whether or not Carroll’s suspension was associated to the leak probe.
The suspensions come lower than a month after Hegseth’s chief of employees, Joe Kasper, ordered the director of protection intelligence (counterintelligence, legislation enforcement, and safety) to help in a probe into “unauthorized disclosures of sensitive and classified information across the Department of Defense.”
“Recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information involving sensitive communications with principals within the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) demand immediate and thorough investigation,” Kasper wrote within the March 21 memo.
The directive famous that polygraph assessments could possibly be administered “in accordance with applicable law and policy” as a part of the hunt for the leakers.
It’s unclear whether or not any of the suspended officers had been subjected to a polygraph check.
A report together with a “complete record of unauthorized disclosures within the Department of Defense and recommendations to improve such efforts” is anticipated to be delivered to Hegseth on the finish of the investigation.
“I expect to be informed immediately if this effort results in information identifying a party responsible for an unauthorized disclosure, and that such information will be referred to the appropriate criminal law enforcement entity for criminal prosecution,” Kasper wrote.
It’s not but identified whether or not any of the suspended people might face prison expenses.
The leaks beneath investigation embody disclosures about operational plans for the Panama Canal, service actions within the Crimson Sea, Elon Musk’s go to to the Pentagon final month and the March pause on intelligence sharing with Ukraine, a US official advised Politico.
