The Pentagon may have violated federal privacy law while publicly accusing a fired Army general of leaking classified information, attorneys told CBS News.
The unusual disclosure followed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s removal of Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia. A Pentagon official told media outlets that Sylvia had failed three polygraph examinations during a leak investigation.
"It defies belief to see … [the] leaking of Privacy Act-protected information of an employee in order to accuse that same employee of themselves being accused of unauthorized leaks," national security attorney Brad Moss told CBS News.
Moss said the Privacy Act generally bars disclosure of such records without consent or other legal authorization.
"This is a Privacy Act violation," former Army attorney Cody Harnish told the network. "Secretary Hegseth cannot sign off on the Pentagon not following the statute."
Harnish also criticized the disclosure of an ongoing counterintelligence investigation and a Justice Department referral, along with a declaration of “severe misconduct” before the investigation had concluded.
Another military justice expert, Frank Rosenblatt, disagreed that disclosing the polygraph information violated the law, but blasted reliance on the tests.
"This unreliable junk information is being allowed to stand in for like actual evidence that he's done something," he said.
CBS could not independently verify the official’s leak allegations. Two other Pentagon sources confirmed the firing was connected to polygraphs but disputed that Sylvia leaked classified information.
The controversy follows earlier accusations by Hegseth against three Pentagon aides whom he dismissed last year while a leak investigation remained underway.
“Once a leaker, always a leaker,” Hegseth told Fox News at the time. “And if those people are exonerated, fantastic, but we don’t think, based on what we understand, it’s going to be a good day for a number of those individuals because of what was found in the investigation.”