Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth posts video of 'amazing' Pentagon visit with Musk
Source: Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth / X
US Defence Department personnel could face polygraph or lie detector tests as the Trump administration moves to crack down on what it says are leaks of national security information.
A memo late Friday from Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s chief of staff referred to “recent unauthorised disclosures” of such information but provided no details about alleged leaks.
Earlier in the day, President Donald Trump rejected reports that adviser Elon Musk would be briefed on how the United States would fight a hypothetical war with China.
“If this effort results in information identifying a party responsible for an unauthorised disclosure,” then such information “will be referred to the appropriate criminal entity for criminal prosecution,” according to the memo.
At the Homeland Security Department, Secretary Kristi Noem pledged this month to step up lie detector tests on employees to identify those who may be leaking information about operations to the media.
The Justice Department on Friday announced an investigation into “the selective leak of inaccurate, but nevertheless classified, information” from intelligence agencies about Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang whose members in the United States are being targeted for removal by the Republican administration.
Leaks occur in every administration — and government officials can be the source — as a trial balloon to test how a potential policy decision will be received.
While polygraph exams are typically not admissible in court proceedings, they are frequently used by federal law enforcement agencies and for national security clearances.
In 1998, the Supreme Court ruled they were also inadmissible in military justice proceedings.
They are inadmissible because they are unreliable and often result in false positives, said George Maschke, a former Army interrogator and reserve intelligence officer who went on to found AntiPolygraph.org.
Mashke failed a polygraph himself when applying to the FBI.
But they have been intermittently used since the 1990s to intimidate and scare sources from talking to reporters, Maschke said.
A 1999 Pentagon report said it was expanding the program to use polygraphs on defence personnel: “if classified information they had access to has been leaked”.
Security clearances stripped
In another move by the administration, Donald Trump has taken away security clearances for former vice president Kamala Harris, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and others in his latest move against his Democratic opponents.
The Republican president, who has also revoked the security clearance for former president Joe Biden, defeated Clinton in the 2016 presidential election and Harris in November’s vote.
“I have determined that it is no longer in the national interest for the following individuals to access classified information,” Trump said in a memorandum that also included former secretary of state Antony Blinken.
While the revocations may not have immediate impacts, it is another sign of the growing political rift in Washington as Trump seeks revenge on his perceived enemies.
The memorandum was issued hours after Trump arrived at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf property for the weekend.
Trump also targeted Republican former representative Liz Cheney, a sharp Trump critic, former Biden White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Fiona Hill, a Russia expert who served on his National Security Council during his first term.
Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer in Washington who represents whistleblowers, and Adam Kinzinger, a former Republican lawmaker who is a sharp Trump critic, were among several others who had their security clearances revoked.
He had already revoked the security clearance for Biden, denying the former president the traditional access to US intelligence.
Former US presidents have long received intelligence briefings so they can advise incumbent presidents on national security and foreign policy.
In 2021, Biden revoked the security clearance for Trump, who was then a former president.
—AAP
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