Three Pentagon officials who were placed on leave as part of an investigation into leaks at the Department of Defense slammed the proceedings against them as “unconscionable” on Saturday.
In a joint statement from Dan Caldwell, Colin Carroll, and Darin Selnick — all of whom were put on administrative leave earlier this week — the officials said they are “incredibly disappointed” with how their service at DOD ended, pointing to “baseless attacks” from “Unnamed Pentagon officials” as well as an unclear investigative process.
“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,” the statement said.
The DOD indicated in March that “Recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information involving sensitive communications” warranted an investigation, and that polygraph tests would be used.
A Pentagon spokesperson confirmed to the Washington Examiner earlier this week that Caldwell was placed on leave for an “unauthorized disclosure.” Selnick and Carroll were put on leave as part of this same investigation.
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Caldwell was a leading adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, while Selnick was the Pentagon’s deputy chief of staff and Carroll was chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg.
The leaks investigation followed the stunning national security blunder on Signal involving top Trump administration officials, including Hegseth.