A U.S. official told Reuters that Dan Caldwell, the top adviser to U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, was escorted out of the Pentagon on Tuesday after being identified in an investigation into internal leaks.
Caldwell has been placed on administrative leave due to what the official described as “an unauthorized disclosure.”
He was involved in the Signal group chat.
According to Reuters national security reporter Phil Stewart on X on Tuesday, Caldwell was placed on leave after a memo issued on March 21 ordered an investigation into Pentagon leaks.
The DOD released a memo requesting an investigation into the “recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information.”
“This investigation will commence immediately and culminate in a report to the Secretary of Defense,” the memo, written by Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, reads. “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.”
Caldwell’s investigation “remains ongoing,” the U.S. official told Reuters.
Stewart said the order was issued by Hegseth’s chief of staff (Joe Kasper).
Kasper wrote that “information identifying a party responsible for an unauthorized disclosure” would be referred for criminal prosecution.
Caldwell previously worked at the restraint-minded think tank Defense Priorities and Concerned Veterans for America, formerly led by Hegseth. A foreign policy realist, he has argued that the U.S. should dramatically reduce its footprint in Europe and pull out forces in Iraq and Syria.
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