Hegseth Chief of Staff Joe Kasper OUT at Pentagon
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Chief of Staff Joe Kasper will leave his position at the Pentagon after three other Hegseth aides were fired last week.
Last week it was reported that Joe Kasper was going to take another job at the Defense Department amid a shakeup at the Pentagon after a probe into leaks.
According to Politico, Kasper will work as a special government employee.
Politico reported:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s controversial chief of staff, who played a central role in a power struggle that gripped the Pentagon, will exit the agency today.
Joe Kasper was originally expected to transition to another role within the Defense Department, but is now planning to go back to government relations and consulting, he said in an interview.
He will continue to support and advise the Pentagon, he said, but as a special government employee. This will limit him to performing temporary jobs for just 130 days a year.
Two Defense Department (DoD) deputy chiefs of staff have now been placed on administrative leave in addition to one of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s leading advisers, Dan Caldwell, who was escorted out of the Pentagon after he was identified in a leak.
On Tuesday, Darin Selnick, a deputy chief of staff for Hegseth, was officially placed on administrative leave. Additionally, the following day, Colin Carroll, a chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, was similarly suspended.
Selnick and Carroll are now reportedly under investigation for the same leak that also placed Caldwell on leave.
Selnick is a retired Air Force officer who has worked extensively in veterans’ affairs organizations, according to the Pentagon’s website.
“Mr. Selnick leverages his extensive government and non-government experience advocating for veterans to position Service members for productive post-separation lives from the first day they put on a uniform,” his bio on the government website states.
Both Selnick and Caldwell had also worked for Concerned Veterans for America in the past, which is a group formerly led by Hegseth.
According to Reuters, Caldwell was placed on administrative leave for “an unauthorized disclosure,” the official said — speaking on condition of anonymity.
“The use of polygraphs in the execution of this investigation will be in accordance with applicable law and policy,” DOD Chief of Staff Joe Kasper wrote in a memo at the time. “This investigation will commence immediately and culminate in a report to the Secretary of Defense.”
According to Politico, an official told the outlet that the leak concerned Panama Canal plans and Special Government Employee (SGE) Elon Musk’s visit to the Pentagon, though the outlet didn’t mention whether the visit had already transpired or if it was upcoming, among other matters.
When you’re trusted with information and you choose to show disloyalty by leaking information whether FOUO or classified, that’s the consequences.
Keep it up. Get rid of all of them.
Related post:
https://sfcmac.com/pete-hegseths-top-advisor-dan-caldwell-escorted-out-of-the-pentagon-for-leaking-classified-information/