War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Monday that the Pentagon and the Department of Justice have established a joint task force to identify and prosecute individuals responsible for leaking sensitive information, as part of the administration’s broader effort to crack down on unauthorized disclosures.
Hegseth said the War Department’s Office of General Counsel will have the authority to request and obtain records, information, and support from across the Pentagon in connection with investigations into leaks involving the news media.
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The war secretary said all Pentagon components and personnel will be required to “prioritize” those requests.
He added that any taskings issued by the Office of General Counsel under the new authority must receive a “full and complete” response within two days of being submitted.
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“Leaked information risks lives. These new tools and processes will greatly assist us in protecting our joint force. The security of our nation cannot be a bargaining chip for those who seek momentary headlines,” Hegseth said in a video which was posted on social platform X.
“Access to confidential and secret information is a sacred trust, and those who betray that trust will be met with the full force of the law,” he added.
The creation of the task force comes just days after the Justice Department issued subpoenas to four New York Times reporters, seeking to compel them to testify before a federal grand jury in Manhattan over the newspaper’s reporting on security concerns involving President Trump’s Qatari-donated aircraft, which he used to travel to Turkey for the NATO summit.
The subpoenas drew sharp criticism from The New York Times and press freedom advocates, who argued the administration was attempting to intimidate news organizations through its investigation, The Hill reported.
“Our journalists report the facts and advance the American public’s right to know how their government is operating and their taxpayer dollars are being used,” Times attorney David McCraw said in a statement.
“This brazen act should be seen as nothing more than an attempt to prevent the public from knowing what is happening in their country by intimidating journalists from doing their jobs,” he added.
To leak sensitive national defense information is to betray our warriors and put them in danger.
That’s why the @DEPTOFWAR and @THEJUSTICEDEPT have created a joint task force to IDENTIFY AND PROSECUTE LEAKERS. pic.twitter.com/pMqXuo21Mm
— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) July 13, 2026
In fact, The Times has repeatedly published false and misleading information, especially when it comes to Trump and his administration.
The paper was among many other legacy media outlets, for instance, that ran with the false claim that Trump and Russia “colluded” to “steal” the 2016 election from Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
The paper also falsely claimed on several occasions that damning and incriminatory information about Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden, and other family members found on a laptop the first son abandoned at a repair shop was “Russian disinformation.”
Since taking over the Pentagon, Hegseth has made preventing unauthorized disclosures to the media a priority.
Last year, the War Department launched investigations into personnel accused of leaking classified information to the press and warned that polygraph examinations could be used as part of those inquiries.
Among those investigated were several of Hegseth’s senior aides, including former senior adviser Dan Caldwell and former deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick.
Caldwell, Selnick, and Colin Carroll, the former chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen A. Feinberg, were initially placed on administrative leave before being escorted from the Pentagon and dismissed during the leak investigation.
An administration official later told The Hill that investigators found no evidence Caldwell had leaked information from the Pentagon.
Caldwell was subsequently hired by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence earlier this year, The Hill reported.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
