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Pentagon officials are enraged by a Washington Post report they say jeopardizes the safety of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his family by disclosing sensitive security details.
The report, dubbed a Washington Post exclusive and headlined “Hegseth’s expansive security requirements tax Army protective unit,” cites unnamed “officials” who insist Hegseth is straining the agency tasked with protecting him because of “unusually large personal security requirements.”
“The sprawling, multimillion-dollar initiative has forced the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, or CID, the agency that fields security for top Defense Department officials, to staff weeks-long assignments in each location and at times monitor residences belonging to Hegseth’s former spouses, the officials said,” the Post reported. “Army CID has faced significant staffing and budgetary shortfalls for years, but new demands since Hegseth’s arrival in January have put added pressure on the agency.”
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U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth arrives at the Pentagon on July 16, 2025. (Getty Images)
The article noted that Hegseth requires additional resources because of a “large blended family” with homes in several locations, “a rise in politically motivated violence as the nation has become more splintered” and a bomb threat “made against his home in Tennessee.”
Pentagon officials believe that a CID staffer talking to the press is equivalent to a Secret Service agent revealing sensitive details about the president’s protection and informing adversaries that Hegseth’s protection is strained can increase the likelihood of a security breach.
The Washington Post report also revealed the state where Hegseth’s second wife currently resides, noted that “CID security assignments can entail accompanying the children to school and walking the perimeter of the homes,” and criticized the secretary of defense for taking his family to a Washington Nationals baseball game.
“We attempted to get the Washington Post to remove sensitive details about the security of Secretary Hegseth’s wife, children, and extended family, citing obvious security concerns and the potential for threats to increase after its publication. There is no justification for the Washington Post to publish this information about them,” Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson told Fox News Digital.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell blasted the paper for putting “lives at risk.”
“In the wake of two assassination attempts against President Trump, ICE agents facing a 1,000% increase in assaults, and repeated threats of retaliation from Iran for striking their nuclear capabilities, it’s astonishing that the Washington Post is criticizing a high-ranking cabinet official for receiving appropriate security protection, especially after doxxing the DHS Secretary last week,” Parnell wrote on X, referring to a previous report that revealed the residence of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
“Any action pertaining to the security of Secretary Hegseth and his family has been in response to the threat environment and at the full recommendation [of] the Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID),” Parnell continued. “When left-wing blogs like the Washington Post continue to dox cabinet secretaries’ security protocols and movements, it puts lives at risk.”
Dan Lamothe, the Washington Post reporter who wrote the story, responded to Parnell on social media.
“It is flatly false that The Washington Post doxxed anyone,” he wrote. “There’s also a public service in documenting how badly under strain this important, no-fail Army mission is, according to numerous professionals with knowledge of it.”
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Pentagon officials are enraged by a Washington Post report they say jeopardizes the safety of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his family by disclosing sensitive security details. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Department of Defense assistant press secretaries Riley Podleski and Jacob Bliss expressed similar disdain.
“How do these reporters sleep at night? @PeteHegseth is not only the Secretary of Defense but a father. This article, in addition to being false, puts him and all of his children at risk,” Podleski wrote.
Bliss wrote, “The scum at the Washington Post published details about @SecDef’s security in the name of ‘journalism.’ They aren’t holding anyone accountable — they’re putting numerous lives and families at risk.”
Deputy Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez called for reporters involved to face “severe punishment.”
More than two dozen paragraphs into the lengthy story, the Post report noted that the CID said “Hegseth did not request the additional coverage,” and featured a statement in which Parnell called Hegseth’s protection “appropriate” and said that when the press scrutinizes “cabinet secretaries’ security protocols and movements, it puts lives at risk.”
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U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth takes a question from a reporter during a news conference at the Pentagon on June 22, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia. (Getty Images)
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., called on the FBI to probe who spoke to the Post.
“WaPo just doxxed sensitive info about @SecDef’s SECURITY DETAIL. This isn’t journalism, it’s a national security threat. I’m calling on @FBIDirectorKash & @FBIDDBongino to open an official FBI investigation into the leakers and the hacks who printed it,” Luna wrote. “TREASON won’t hide behind a press badge.”
The Washington Post did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“The Washington Post withheld several sensitive details gathered in the course of reporting this article, including the size of Hegseth’s protective details and the precise locations where they are assigned,” the Post noted in the report.
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Fox News Digital’s Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
