A top Pentagon official that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired last week as part of an investigation into media leaks said he was ousted as part of a deep state plot in a new tell-all interview.
Dan Caldwell, in an interview with Tucker Carlson Monday, claimed his loyalty to Hegseth and President Donald Trump “threatened established interests” within the department. He told the former Fox News host that he and two other ousted officials—Colin Carroll and Darin Selnick—were the subject of baseless accusations and did not leak any information to the media.
“We had people who had personal vendettas against us, and I think they weaponized the investigation against us. I think that’s part of what’s going on here,” Caldwell said.
“Colin wasn’t afraid of challenging people when they were acting stupid and wanted to keep doing the same thing. And Darin’s the same way. Darin upset a lot of the people who want to keep using the military to be a giant social science experiment,” he went on. “All of us threatened established interests.”
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
Caldwell denied leaking to the press, saying that if he had done so, he would already be in handcuffs.
Rather, the leaks, he claimed, are coming from “the career staff who don’t like what the president and vice president and secretary want to do.”
“There’s people on the joint staff that I kind of respect, but a lot of them are incredibly hostile to the secretary, to the president and the vice president’s worldview,” Caldwell said. “It’s pretty obvious that that’s where most of the leaks are coming from.”
Caldwell also offered what he called a “less obvious” source of leaks, and in the process named names: Susan Rice, a national security adviser during Barack Obama’s second term, Michele Flournoy, a Defense Department official in the Clinton and Obama administrations, and Eric Edelman, who served as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy in the George W. Bush administration, all of whom still maintain their security clearances.
It remains unclear how any of those former government officials would have known about personal details related to Hegseth that later became the focus of multiple unflattering news reports. Over the weekend, it emerged that the defense secretary created a second Signal group chat to discuss sensitive military planning details of a strike on Houthi militants in Yemen—this one including his brother, wife, and personal attorney.
Caldwell and Selnick were reportedly also a part of that group.
All three of the ousted officials pushed back against their firing in a joint statement Saturday, claiming that they had yet to be told basic information about the circumstances of their exit.
“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,” they said.
The trio’s exit, combined with Hegseth’s chief of staff changing roles, has marked a turbulent time in the Defense Department.
The Pentagon’s recently departed chief spokesperson even penned a bombshell editorial Sunday describing “chaos” and “dysfunction” since Hegseth’s arrival.
The former Fox & Friends Weekend co-host has denied all wrongdoing and blamed the media Monday for airing “smears” on his reputation.
“They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees, and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations. Not going to work with me, because we’re changing the Defense Department, putting the Pentagon back in the hands of war fighters and anonymous smears from disgruntled former employees on old news doesn’t matter,” he said while at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.
Trump publicly defended Hegseth as well, calling the steady drumbeat of stories a “waste of time.”
“He’s doing a great job. Ask the Houthis how he’s doing,” Trump said.
Behind the scenes, however, Trump is reportedly looking for Hegseth’s replacement, according to NPR—though the White House denied the account.
