Three Pentagon officials, who were removed from their jobs amid an investigation into leaks at the department, now claim they were “slandered.”
Earlier this week, Dan Caldwell, a top adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, was placed on administrative leave for an “an unauthorized disclosure,” a government official previously told Reuters. He and two other officials — Colin Carroll, chief of staff to the deputy defense secretary, and Darin Selnick, deputy chief of staff for the department — were fired on Friday, Politico reported.
Now, the three men say they are “incredibly disappointed by the manner in which our service at the Department of Defense ended,” according to a joint statement posted from Caldwell’s X account.
“Unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door,” the trio wrote.
The Independent has reached out to the department for comment.
All three have served the country — Caldwell is a Marine corps veteran, Selnick is a retired air force officer, and Carroll is a Marine corps reservist — and “based on our collective service, we understand the importance of information security and worked every day to protect it,” they wrote.
The group noted they haven’t been told what they were investigated for or whether there was even a “real investigation” into leaks.
In a late March memo, Hegseth's chief of staff, Joe Kasper, requested a probe into "recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information involving sensitive communications,” Reuters reported.
Kasper is now also under review as part of the probe, sources told CBS News, just one day after Politico reported he was leaving his post for a different role at the department.
This whirlwind of change means Hegseth is now, at least temporarily, without a chief of staff, deputy chief of staff and top adviser.
Joint statement from Dan Caldwell, Colin Carroll, and Darin Selnick:
— Dan Caldwell 🇺🇸 (@dandcaldwell) April 19, 2025
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…
“At this time, no final senior staffing changes have been decided, and the secretary will make any future announcements on his own timetable,” a senior defense official told CBS News.
“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, they concluded.
The news comes weeks after Caldwell was named as the defense secretary's best point of contact in the now-infamous group chat shared with an Atlantic journalist now known as Signalgate.
More recently, Caldwell and Selnick were escorted out of the Pentagon on Tuesday and had their access to the building suspended. Both men previously worked at Concerned Veterans for America, a nonprofit that Hegseth spearheaded.
An incessant crackdown in Belarus hurls dozens of independent journalists into harsh prisons
Navy cancels speech by podcaster who planned to reference its book ban
Man who fatally shot 23 at El Paso Walmart set to plead guilty to murder nearly 6 years on
Supreme Court temporarily blocks deportation of Venezuelans under Alien Enemies Act
Thousands take to streets across US to protest Trump and Musk policies
James Carville blasts ‘supremely naive’ Bill Maher over White House dinner with Trump
