Joe Kasper, Hegseth’s chief of staff, is the fourth top official to be ousted in the last week amid turmoil over the use of the messaging app Signal for military purposes.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warns ‘leakers’ could be prosecuted
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warns on Fox & Friends ‘leakers’ could be prosecuted.
WASHINGTON – Joe Kasper is out as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s chief of staff, the fourth top official to be fired or reassigned in the last week amid political turmoil at the Pentagon.
Kasper will continue to work on special projects at the Pentagon, according to a Defense official who was not authorized to speak publicly.
The unrest at the pinnacle of the military’s leadership is highly unusual. Hegseth has been the focus of a Pentagon Inspector General’s review of his handling of sensitive military information via the commercial app Signal.
Kasper, who worked in the first Trump administration, had previously been chief of staff to Rep. Duncan Hunter, Jr. Hunter had been convicted of misusing campaign funds and was later pardoned by Trump.
Kasper was sworn in as Hegseth’s chief of staff in late January. In early April, he touted the deportation of alleged Venezuelan and MS-13 gang members to El Salvador as a “successful counterterrorism mission.”
In late March, Kasper was among senior Pentagon officials who vowed to crack down on leaks. He issued a memo warning that those suspected of disclosing sensitive information could be subject to lie detector tests. That announcement followed news that Elon Musk, who leads the administration’s effort to cut government spending, was due to receive a briefing at the Pentagon on China.
According to his LinkedIn, the former chief of staff’s past experiences include four years at the Ervin Graves lobbying firm; one-year stints at Homeland Security, the Air Force and Navy; and about a decade as a Congressional staffer.
Who else was ousted from the Pentagon?
The Pentagon has been rocked by turnover in recent weeks.
Two aides to Hegseth were placed on administrative leave last week as part of an investigation into unauthorized leaks of information. The Pentagon did not disclose specifics of the alleged offense by Dan Caldwell or Darin Selnick because the matter is under investigation, according to USA TODAY.
The suspensions come after Hegseth disclosed operational details of the Pentagon’s air strikes on Houthi militants March 15. Hegseth discussed the attack’s timing with senior Trump administration officials on the encrypted commercial app Signal. That chat had mistakenly included the editor of The Atlantic magazine.
Hegseth has denied releasing sensitive information. But several current and former military officials have told USA TODAY that the information Hegseth disclosed, the timing of attacks, is among the most closely guarded national security information.
Firings came amid purge of top officials
Ousters following news of the Signal chat leak come even as Hegseth’s tenure has been marked by the purging of senior officials linked to Biden-era diversity, equity and inclusion efforts and the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, the U.S. military’s representative to NATO, was fired in early April. Hegseth dismissed Chatfield, former president of the Naval War College and a Navy pilot, “due to a loss of confidence in her ability to lead,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement then.
In February, Hegseth, who has derided diversity efforts because he says they weaken the military, fired a series of senior officers, including the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. C.Q. Brown.
Hegseth then announced that he is replacing Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Lisa Franchetti and Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Slife.
“We thank them for their service and dedication to our country,” Hegseth said in a statement.
