US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has warned of possible prosecutions of former senior advisers who were dismissed during a probe into leaks of Pentagon information to the media.
Hegseth stated that evidence would be submitted to the Department of Justice once the investigation is over.
Dan Caldwell, one of the top advisers to the defense chief, and two others were fired after being escorted out of the Pentagon.
However, they denied any wrongdoing and said they had been told nothing about any alleged crimes.
Hegseth himself is facing growing calls to resign after coming under fire for using the messaging system Signal to discuss plans to attack Yemen’s Houthi group.
He told Fox News, “If those people are exonerated, fantastic. We don’t think, based on what we understand, that it’s going to be a good day for a number of those individuals because of what was found in the investigation.”
Hegseth said there had been a number of leaks that triggered the investigation: “We said enough is enough. We’re going to launch a leak investigation. We took it seriously. It led to some unfortunate places, people I have known for quite some time. But it’s not my job to protect them. It’s my job to protect national security.
“When that evidence is gathered sufficiently – and this has all happened very quickly – it will be handed over to the DOJ and those people will be prosecuted if necessary.”
