Darin Selnick, the Pentagon’s deputy chief of staff, was suspended and escorted from the building as part of the same leak investigation that led to the removal of senior adviser Dan Caldwell, according to an official familiar with the matter.
The leaks under scrutiny involve sensitive military plans, including operations related to the Panama Canal, deployment of a second aircraft carrier to the Red Sea, a visit by Elon Musk to the Pentagon, and the reported pause in intelligence collection for Ukraine, the official said.
A memo circulated in March and signed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s chief of staff authorized the Pentagon’s director of defense intelligence to investigate unauthorized disclosures and approved the use of polygraphs.
Caldwell was named by Hegseth as the Pentagon’s lead contact for coordinating U.S. strikes on Yemen in a Signal group chat with national security leaders that inadvertently included a journalist.
Selnick, who earlier this year was performing the duties of the under secretary of Defense for personnel and readiness, held positions in both the White House and the Department of Veterans Affairs during Trump’s first term. He is also a former senior adviser to Concerned Veterans for America, an organization Hegseth once led.
