Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fended off numerous controversies since being selected by Donald Trump to head the Pentagon, and now Hegseth's aides are "fighting one another like a bag of rabid ferrets," according to a conservative strategist.
Rick Wilson, who helped found the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, which is consistently filled with current and former Republicans who oppose the President, flagged a report from the Guardian about Hegseth and a leak investigation.
"The White House has lost confidence in a Pentagon leak investigation that Pete Hegseth used to justify firing three top aides last month, after advisers were told that the aides had supposedly been outed by an illegal warrantless National Security Agency (NSA) wiretap," the report states.
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In Wilson's view, "The insanity at the Pentagon continues apace. Hegseth aides are fighting one another like a bag of rabid ferrets."
"It’s not just that the Hegseth team reflects his incompetence, lack of experience, and general ignorance of a complex, dangerous world. It’s that they’re spending the majority of their time trying to shiv one another," the strategist added.
Regarding the Guardian story, Wilson wrote, "I’ll spare you the details that led up to this story, but after a purge of Hegseth aides accused of leaking material related to Panama, Hegseth’s attorney Tim Paraltore claimed the fired staffers had been tagged by an NSA wiretapping program."
"Parlatore walked the claim back slightly, but this led to a White House blowup. The idea that the NSA was dropping coverage in a mid-tier leak investigation is insane, but as a former senior spook told me last night, 'Insane, but not out of the question with these bozos,'" Wilson said. "I think Parlatore was lying. I hope he was lying. If he wasn’t, Hegseth, everyone involved in this, and a lot of NSA folks, are going to jail. This is not done."
Wilson further added:
"That’s not how any of this works. If the NSA wants to tap a U.S. citizen’s phone, they can’t just flip a switch and start listening like it’s an episode of Jack Ryan. No, even in our post-post-Patriot Act, national security fever-dream era, there's still a process. It’s an obscure, secretive, bureaucratic, black-of-night kind of affair. They don’t take orders from GS-15 lawyers working for Pete Hegseth."
