A second senior Pentagon official under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was placed on administrative leave Tuesday amid ongoing investigations into unauthorized leaks of national security information.
Deputy Chief of Staff Darin Selnick was escorted out of the Pentagon and placed on administrative leave, according to Politico, citing an unnamed defense official. Selnick previously served in the Air Force and Veterans Affairs, and his role involved advising the Secretary of Defense on matters including force readiness and personnel management.
This action follows the recent removal of Dan Caldwell, a senior adviser to Hegseth, who was similarly escorted from the building on Tuesday. Caldwell's suspension, initially reported by Reuters, is directly tied to the ongoing leak investigation, according to two defense officials who spoke anonymously to discuss internal matters.
Caldwell had served as Hegseth's primary liaison in a controversial encrypted messaging group on Signal, which included top Trump administration national security officials discussing military actions against Yemen's Houthi militants. The existence of the chat drew scrutiny after Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was inadvertently added, triggering security concerns within the administration.
In March, Joe Kasper, Hegseth's chief of staff, announced an immediate inquiry into unauthorized disclosures. "Recent 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 in a memo.
Kasper further stated that any individual identified as responsible for leaks would face severe consequences, noting: "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."
Hegseth and other Trump Cabinet officials have repeatedly downplayed allegations of mishandling sensitive information. Responding to the initial reports by Goldberg, Hegseth stated emphatically: "Nobody was texting war plans, and that's all I have to say about that." National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, who set up the Signal chat, criticized Goldberg sharply, labeling him the "bottom scum of journalists."
Caldwell's history with Hegseth extends back to their time at Concerned Veterans for America (CVA), where Caldwell served as executive director. Caldwell later worked at the Washington-based think tank Defense Priorities before joining Hegseth's team at the Pentagon. The leak investigation marks a significant escalation in the administration's ongoing crackdown against unauthorized disclosure of classified information, intensifying scrutiny on internal communication practices at the highest levels of the U.S. Defense Department.
