A top advisor to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was escorted from the Pentagon on Tuesday and placed on leave amid an ongoing investigation into unauthorized disclosures of information, Reuters reports. Dan Caldwell was "identified" in the course of the investigation according to Reuters' anonymous source; the nature of the alleged disclosures and to whom they were made was not revealed.
Caldwell, a Marine and veteran of the Iraq war, wrote in a 2024 article at Foreign Affairs that he advocates for a defense policy of restraint and that the United States should give up on the goal of American primacy, but clarified in a podcast interview with Financial Times that:
I think the United States should strive to remain the most powerful country in the world. But in my mind, that is different from trying to achieve primacy. In my view, attempting to be the dominant power is different from trying to be the most powerful country.
He then added, "I think our pursuit of primacy has ultimately made us weaker as a country." In that same interview he said of the Iraq War, "I would say it was criminal. I think the Iraq war was a monstrous crime."
Caldwell was also a participant in the Signal chat between Vice President JD Vance, Hegseth, and other administration officials in which a pending strike on the Houthis in Yemen was discussed that was leaked to The Atlantic last month. Hegseth described Caldwell as his best staff point of contact for the National Security Council as the strike was planned and carried out.
Caldwell discussed his disagreement with United States military assistance to Israel in a separate podcast:
Dan Caldwell, a top advisor to Defense Chief Pete Hegseth, was escorted out of the Pentagon after being named in a Department of Defense leaks investigation.
— Shadow of Ezra (@ShadowofEzra) April 15, 2025
Caldwell didn’t toe the usual line on foreign policy. He openly challenged the Washington consensus on Israel, saying the… pic.twitter.com/O2ZoVSNmXd
According to Reuters:
A March 21 memo signed by Hegseth's chief of staff, Joe Kasper, requested an investigation into "recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information involving sensitive communications."
Kasper's memo left open the possibility of a polygraph, although it was unclear if Caldwell was subjected to one.
The investigation into unauthorized disclosures remains ongoing.
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