Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is clearing the ranks of the military's lawyers to "get them out of the way" of possibly illegal moves, according to current and former defense officials.
Hegseth fired Lt. Gen. Joe Berger, the Army's top uniformed lawyer, early this year on the advice of the right-wing social media account LibsOfTikTok and he then removed the Air Force’s Judge Advocate General, Lt. Gen. Charles Plummer, describing both as "roadblocks to orders that are given by a commander-in-chief," reported CNN.
“I see this as part of a grander plan to remove lawyers from the [military’s] operational forces and get them out of the way,” said a former senior defense official.
The sources told CNN that Berger and Plummer’s firings appeared to be warning shots at the outset of President Donald Trump's second term that the administration intended to test the boundaries of the law – and they expected Judge Advocate General corps officers to go along with their potentially unlawful plans.
“Decapitating those organizations was an easy way for Hegseth to send a strong message from the outset and put the entire JAG corps on notice,” said a defense official familiar with his thinking.
Senior JAGs historically have a duty to provide candid and apolitical legal advice to military leaders, complying with U.S. and international law, but Hegseth's staff seems more interested in "political litmus tests" when interviewing candidates to serve in the corps.
“Hegseth’s rhetoric and policies are perceived as a bit unhinged and counterproductive, but the way forward is just to eat it and put your head down and act in accordance with his new policies,” said one current Army JAG. “No JAG is trying to rock the boat or get noticed.”
The self-described "secretary of war" has reduced the rank requirement for the top uniformed military legal posts from three stars to two stars, which a former defense official said effectively relegated them to second-tier legal advisers, and he plans to transfer hundreds of JAGs to the Justice Department to serve as immigration judges, which would pull them out of the military justice system.
“When you’re a two-star and you walk into the room for a high-level meeting, you’re against the wall," said a former senior defense official. "You’re not at the table, and there are some meetings that are held just at the three- or four-star level — so you can’t even get into the room as a two-star.”
Hegseth derided JAGs as "jagoffs" in his 2024 book The War on Warriors, complaining they investigated U.S. troops rather than “bad guys” because it was “easier to get promoted that way," and he tapped his personal lawyer Tim Parlatore, who represented him a sexual assault settlement, to coordinate an overhaul of the military justice system to reduce their presence at the Pentagon.
“The rule of law at DoD has been under attack since day one of this administration,” said one current JAG. “There is a real dismissiveness of lawyers now, and I fear for where this is all going.”
