Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth welcomes Elon Musk to the Pentagon as a visitor during a private briefing on Friday. Photo courtesy Department of Justice
March 22 (UPI) — The Pentagon is investigating leaks of national security information, including using polygraph tests, one day after media reports about an upcoming briefing with White House senior adviser Elon Musk.
Joe Kasper, the Defense Department’s chief of staff, on Friday issued a memo about the “recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information involving sensitive communications with principals within the Office of the Secretary of Defense demand immediate and thorough investigation.”
He said the “use of polygraphs in the execution of this investigation will be in accordance with applicable law and policy.”
Polygraph tests are typically not admissible in court proceedings, but they are used by federal law enforcement agencies and for national security clearances.
In a 1999 report, the Pentagon said it was expanding a program to use polygraphs on military, defense personnel and contractors “if classified information they had access to has been leaked.”
“We believe this will serve as a deterrent to individuals who may be considering leaking classified information” the report concluded.
The investigation will culminate in a report to the agency.
“If this effort results in information identifying a party responsible for an unauthorized disclosure, and that such information will be referred to the appropriate criminal law enforcement entity for criminal prosecution,” Kasper wrote.
He said Defense Intelligence will support the Office of the Secretary of Defense in leading an investigation into unauthorized disclosures in coordination with the appropriate Department of Defense officials and in coordination with federal partners.
On Friday, President Donald Trump rejected reports that Musk, who heads the Department of Government Efficiency, would be briefed on how the United States would fight a hypothetical war with China.
Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth called his meeting with Musk ” a great, informal conversation.”
“The rest of that reporting was fake. There was no war plans, there was no Chinese war plans. There was no secret plans,” Hegseth said.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche announced Friday that the Justice Department is “opening a criminal investigation relating to the selective leak of inaccurate, but nevertheless classified, information from the Intelligence Community relating to Tren de Aragua.
“We will not tolerate politically motivated efforts by the Deep State to undercut President Trump’s agenda by leaking false information onto the pages of their allies at the New York Times. The Alien Enemies Proclamation is supported by fact, law, and common sense, which we will establish in court and then expel the TDA terrorists from this country,” Blanche said.
Tren de Aragua is a Venezuelan gang whose members in the United States were targeted for removal by the Trump administration.
Earlier this month, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem pledged to step up lie detector tests on employees who may be leaking information about operations to the media.
“We have identified two leakers of information here at the Department of Homeland Security who have been telling individuals about our operations and putting law enforcement lives in jeopardy,” Noem said in a video posted March 7. “We plan to prosecute these two individuals and hold them accountable for what they’ve done.”
