The Chief of Staff of the US Secretary of Defense will be fired after the data leak in Signal
Joe Kasper, the chief of staff of the US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, will be fired in connection with the scandal surrounding the leak of confidential information that occurred in the encrypted messenger Signal. About this informs Politico, citing an unnamed senior White House official. According to journalists, Kasper will leave his post in the coming days, but he will not leave the Pentagon permanently – another place is being prepared for him in the structure of the defense department.
The data leak caused significant personnel changes in the minister’s team. Several key officials have been suspended or placed on leave, including Pete Hegseth’s adviser Dan Caldwell, deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick and chief of staff to the deputy defense secretary Colin Carroll. According to Politico, the latter two are preparing a lawsuit over their removal.
It will be recalled that the scandal broke out after the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, accidentally received an invitation to join an internal chat at Signal on March 11. He was invited by national security adviser Michael Waltz, who apparently mixed up the contacts. Thus, the journalist ended up in the “Houthi PC small group” chat, where high-ranking officials of the Donald Trump administration discussed the details of future strikes on Yemen, including specific targets, types of weapons and the chronology of attacks.
On March 15, the day of the strikes, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth himself sent a message to the chat with operational information. This confirmed to the journalist that he got into a real channel of internal communication in the administration.
After the incident, lawyers for The Atlantic said that Volz’s actions may violate federal regulations on the handling of sensitive defense information.
The scandal received wide resonance. Democratic congressmen called for formal congressional hearings, and the non-governmental organization American Oversight filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington against five senior Trump administration officials. Defendants include Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratkilf, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The US National Archives and Records Administration is also involved in the case.
Against this background, personnel changes in the Pentagon became the first step in an attempt to resolve the scandal and reduce the risks of further leaks of critical information.
