Second Hegseth adviser suspended amid Pentagon leak probe

A second adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been suspended amid an ongoing probe into leaks of information at the Pentagon. 

The Defense Department’s (DOD) deputy chief of staff, Darin Selnick, was placed on administrative leave “pending an investigation,” a U.S. defense official told The Hill.

Selnick’s suspension came as part of the same investigation into the leaks at the department that led to Dan Caldwell, Hegseth’s senior adviser, being escorted out of the Pentagon on Tuesday and placed on administrative leave. 

Selnick is a retired Air Force officer who has been a part of several veterans’ affairs groups. He was a senior advisor to the Concerned Veterans for America from 2019 to 2024, the nonprofit group that was previously led by Hegseth. 

Selnick’s suspension was first reported by Politico. The outlet reported that leaks that are under probe by the department include the movement of a second aircraft carrier to the Red Sea, military operations plans for the Panama Canal, tech billionaire Elon Musk’s visit to DOD and halting intelligence sharing with Ukraine, citing an official familiar with the matter. 

President Trump’s administration has looked to crack down on leaks within the Pentagon and other departments. 

The DOD said in March that it began a probe into “recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information” and that it would use polygraphs as part of the investigative process. 

“This investigation will commence immediately and culminate in a report to the Secretary of Defense,” Hegseth’s chief of staff Joe Kasper wrote in a March 21 memo. “The report will include a complete record of unauthorized disclosures within the Department of Defense and recommendations to improve such efforts.”

Caldwell, a Marine Corps veteran, was also a public policy adviser at Washington-based think tank Defense Priorities. He was selected by the defense secretary as the point of contact in the Signal group chat where U.S. officials discussed strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen. The existence of the group was revealed by The Atlantic’s top editor, who was inadvertently added to the thread in March. 

Prior to serving as deputy chief of staff, Selnick was the under secretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, according to his biography.