Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's top aide reportedly gossiped with his colleagues that he and the Pentagon boss had worn disguises and went out for drinks together — an alleged plot to try to discover potential leakers inside the department, according to a report Friday from The New York Post.
Ricky Buria, Hegseth's chief of staff, started spreading the rumor in early 2025 and created a story that he and Hegseth had evaded the secretary's security detail while at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Pentagon City, the outlet reported.
"There’s no proof that the great escape actually happened, but the tale has reverberated within the administration and stoked continued frustration with Buria’s powerful role leading US military policy," according to The Post.
"Many people close to or inside the Trump administration say they believe Buria, a Biden administration holdover who formed a fast friendship with Hegseth, was ham-handedly attempting to catch leakers — but put the secretary at risk of scandal in the meantime," The Post reported.
The tale was apparently shared so often that sources told the outlet they were unsure how they could actually track who disseminated the information.
Hegseth has been accused of alleged drunken misbehavior in the past and had publicly said before his January 2025 Senate confirmation that he vowed not to drink "a drop of alcohol" in order to have a "fully dialed-in Pete" in the nation's top defense role.
A source told The Post he was shocked when Buria told him the story at the Pentagon office just months later, in late March or April.
“My first impression of it was he was trying to figure out if I was going to tell other people. But then I come to find out a couple months later that he was running around telling people,” the source told The Post.