April 22, 2025 – Donald Trump presidency information

Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth continued to double down on Tuesday that three senior Pentagon officers who have been fired final week have been leaking data to the press, and that he didn’t share any categorised data in a second Sign group chat reported over the weekend.

“After we had leaks, which we have now had right here, we did a severe leak investigation. And thru that leak investigation, sadly, we discovered some people that we imagine weren’t holding to the protocols that we maintain expensive right here on the Protection Division. By way of that investigation, they’ve been moved on, and that investigation continues,” Hegseth stated Tuesday morning in an interview on “Fox and Associates.”

Hegseth additionally confirmed the existence of a second Sign group chat — members of which included his spouse, brother, and private lawyer — by which he shared delicate army operation particulars. He stated Tuesday that “was shared over Sign, then and now, nevertheless you characterize it, was casual, unclassified coordinations for media coordinations and different issues.”

Extra context: Hegseth’s feedback come a day after one of many officers, Dan Caldwell, who has recognized Hegseth for years and was serving as his senior adviser, informed Tucker Carlson in an interview on Monday that he didn’t leak or {photograph} categorised materials and has not been polygraphed. Caldwell additionally stated that as of Monday, neither he nor the opposite two officers – Hegseth’s former deputy chief of workers Darin Selnick, and Colin Carroll, chief of workers to the Deputy Protection Secretary — have been informed what they have been investigated for or if there’s nonetheless an energetic investigation. Caldwell, Selnick, and Carroll denied leaking data in a joint assertion on Saturday.

Hegseth stated the investigation, which is being led by the Workplace of Particular Investigations, or OSI, remains to be ongoing. Requested by Fox’s Brian Kilmeade on Tuesday why the officers weren’t polygraphed, Hegseth reiterated that the investigation has “led to some unlucky locations, folks I’ve recognized for fairly a while.”

He added that believes the details about the second Sign chat got here from one of many fired people in an effort to “sabotage the agenda of president or the secretary.”