A Pentagon adviser who was abruptly fired with several other Defense Department officials amid a leak investigation is disputing the stated reason for his dismissal, arguing he was purged over his foreign policy views — including opposition to an attack on Iran.
Dan Caldwell said in a podcast interview Monday that he was not responsible for leaks that were used as a justification for a purge that has caused turmoil at the Pentagon and prompted to calls for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to resign.
He insisted he never leaked any information and that neither he nor two other fired officials, Colin Carroll and Darin Selnick, were even told why they were ousted.
“I was out there advancing things that a lot of people in the foreign policy establishment didn’t want,” Caldwell said in the interview with far-right host Tucker Carlson. “It doesn’t justify what’s happening to me but let’s just be honest that is the nature of the games played in D.C.”
Caldwell said while he believes his views contributed to his ouster, he thinks Carroll and Selnick were fired for different reasons.
“We were threatening a lot of established interests in our own separate ways,” he said. “And we had people who had personal vendettas against us. And I think they weaponized the investigation against us."
His comments provided new insight into firings that have roiled the Pentagon and become the latest challenge to Hegseth and his management of the Defense Department.
Caldwell, a former Marine officer who previously worked for Hegseth at Concerned Veterans of America, portrayed himself as an opponent of open-ended military conflict that has characterized U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East — and could resume with an attack on Iran that has the backing of some American and Israeli officials.
“I think there clearly is a very strong coalition within the United States that wants to see another war in the Middle East,” Caldwell said. “And it crosses both parties.”
The former adviser said he was a supporter of Hegseth, a former Fox News host who was narrowly confirmed by the Senate because of allegations of sexual and alcohol abuse and what many perceived was a lack of relevant experience leading a sprawling organization.
Caldwell said he had never been polygraphed or had to give up personal phones as part of a probe.
“There's a lot of evidence that there is not a real investigation,” Caldwell said. “But again, sitting here right now, there are a lot of unknowns about this.”
Defense officials told POLITICO last week that the investigation centered around a series of leaks, including the deployments of carriers to the Red Sea, Elon Musk’s visit to the Pentagon for a security briefing and the pause of U.S. intelligence to Ukraine. Caldwell insisted that the untold story was that his controversial views had made him a target.
Caldwell said he thought when officials came to escort him out of the Pentagon on April 15 was that he was being asked to testify against Hegseth in an inspector general investigation over the use of the Signal messaging app by senior administration officials to discuss a looming airstrike in Yemen.
Trouble appeared to mount for Hegseth after The New York Times reported Sunday that the Pentagon chief shared sensitive information in a different Signal group chat that included his wife and brother.
“This is what the media does,” Hegseth said at the White House on Sunday. “They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees, and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations.”
Caldwell, for his part, accused career staff and former officials of orchestrating the leaks — perhaps in anger over the selection of Gen. Dan Caine to be chair of the joint chiefs of staff.
The former senior Hegseth adviser is still eager to find another job in the Trump administration, and said he hoped that the chaos that has consumed the Pentagon in the past several months will end.
“But at the end of the day, putting all this aside, Pete Hegseth needs to be a successful Secretary of Defense,” Caldwell said. “And the entire Department of Defense, cannot be continue to be consumed by chaos.”
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