Pete Hegseth targets news outlets, leakers as defense secretary

Oct. 1, 2025 | Pentagon to require nondisclosure agreements, random polygraph testing

May 26, 2025 | Defense Department attempts to bar CNN reporter from foreign trip

March 21, 2025 | Defense Department announces investigation into media leaks

Oct. 1, 2025 | Pentagon to require nondisclosure agreements, random polygraph testing

In its latest move to combat leaks, the Pentagon plans to require all employees within the Office of the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Staff to sign nondisclosure agreements and to subject them to random polygraph testing, The Washington Post reported on Oct. 1, 2025.

The estimated 5,000 military service members, civilian employees and contractors will be asked to sign an NDA that “prohibits the release of non-public information without approval or through a defined process.”

The Post reported that the requirements are part of a larger strategy to identify and remove not only leakers but also those deemed insufficiently loyal to the Trump administration.

News of the planned measures also comes on the heels of new press restrictions issued on Sept. 19, which mandate that journalists pledge to obtain approval before releasing information gathered at the Pentagon, even if unclassified.

A seventeen-page memo, signed by Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, asserted that “information must be approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official before it is released, even if it is unclassified.” Refusal or noncompliance could result in the loss of press credentials and access to the Pentagon.

The new rules, issued under the insignia of the “Department of War,” the newly designated “secondary title” for the Department of Defense, also forbade unescorted access to large areas of the building. A May memo issued by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth already mandated that journalists have official approval and escorts from the Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs to enter building areas once freely accessible to credentialed reporters.

May 26, 2025 | Defense Department attempts to bar CNN reporter from foreign trip

The Pentagon attempted to bar CNN national security reporter Haley Britzky from traveling as the designated television pool journalist during Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s trip to Singapore, Status reported on May 26, 2025.

“Pentagon officials—apparently irked by some of her tweets, despite their innocuous nature—relayed to CNN brass that she was not welcome,” Oliver Darcy wrote.

On May 24, Britzky highlighted her Signal username in a post on the social platform X amid the Department of Defense’s efforts to crack down on leaks, including by limiting press access to areas of the Pentagon.

Arthur Schwartz, one of Hegseth’s closest advisers, reposted Britzky, adding, “Any reporters that are encouraging DoD employees to bypass DoD Public Affairs and violate the terms of their employment with the government should be permanently banned from the Pentagon. Start with this one.”

Status reported that the move to exclude Britzky from Hegseth’s Singapore trip triggered an immediate backlash: Multiple other outlets indicated that if she was excluded they would boycott the trip.

“They don’t get to decide who covers them,” one correspondent told Status.

The Pentagon relented, and Britzky traveled with Hegseth as originally planned.

March 21, 2025 | Defense Department announces investigation into media leaks

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office sent a memo on March 21, 2025, initiating an investigation into “recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information.”

“This investigation will commence immediately and culminate in a report to the Secretary of Defense,” wrote Joe Kasper, Hegseth’s chief of staff. “I expect to be informed immediately if this effort results in information identifying a party responsible for an unauthorized disclosure, and that such information will be referred to the appropriate criminal law enforcement entity for criminal prosecution.”

The memo also noted that department employees will be subject to polygraph exams “in accordance with applicable law and policy.”

The memo came hours after Elon Musk, head of the new Department of Government Efficiency, posted on social media calling The New York Times’ reporting on the planned content of his briefing at the Pentagon “pure propaganda.”

“I look forward to the prosecutions of those at the Pentagon who are leaking maliciously false information to NYT,” Musk wrote. “They will be found.”

Musk’s meeting with members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ultimately did not take place, Reuters reported.

A Times spokesperson told Reuters that leak investigations are “meant to chill communications between journalists and their sources and undermine the ability of a free press to bring out vital information that may otherwise be hidden.”