BItter feuds among Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's inner circle spilled into the public this week. (Franco Brana/AFP via Getty Images)
At least one of the former employees is consulting with legal counsel, but none have been fired and all are awaiting the outcome of the investigation.
"Being placed on paid leave is not considered a disciplinary decision. It's considered a preliminary step to conduct an investigation, so if they think they're being railroaded or hosed, they'll have some due process opportunity to respond when there's a formal decision," said Sean Timmons, a legal expert in military and employment law.
"They've been humiliated in the media to some extent. However, this happens every day in the federal government. Generally speaking, what's happened so far is not necessarily considered discipline. It's just considered a security protocol step to suspend their authorization, suspend their access to their emails, and a full, thorough independent investigation can be conducted."
Officials denied that the three men were placed on leave because of their foreign policy views and said they saw no connection to their positions on Iran and Israel — even as reports surfaced that President Donald Trump told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the Pentagon would not intervene if Israel attacked Iran.
Colin Carroll, chief of staff to Deputy Secretary of Defense Stephen Feinberg, poses for a photo during a key leader engagement at Camp H.M. Smith, Hawaii, on Feb. 7. (Moses S. Lopez Franco/U.S. Marine Corps)
The three aides are civilian political appointees, meaning they could be fired at-will regardless of the investigation. But if they are found to have engaged in unauthorized leaking, they could have their security clearances yanked away.
"There are very few protections when it comes to political appointees versus career civilian staff," said Libby Jamison, an attorney who specializes in military law. "For appointees, there is very broad discretion to be placed on administrative leave or reassigned."
If employees are accused of leaking, a report is sent to the Defense Information System for Security, and then there is an independent review of their eligibility for access to sensitive information.
"They'll get a chance, potentially, to try to keep their clearance and show that they didn't violate any security clearance protocols when it comes to handling sensitive information," said Timmons. "If it is found they were leaking information in violation of the rules, and then there's a guideline violation for personal misconduct and for breaching of sensitive information. So they could be possibly criminally prosecuted and certainly terminated from their employment and have their clearance stripped and revoked."
Or, if the independent officer does not find sufficient evidence to tie them to the leaks, they could return to their positions and maintain clearances.
Ullyot, meanwhile, said that he had made clear to Hegseth from the beginning that he was "not interested in being number two to anyone in public affairs."
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Ullyot ran the public affairs office on an acting basis at the start of the administration, leading a memo that yanked back workspaces for legacy media outlets and reassigned them to conservative networks. Ullyot also took a jab at former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, saying his "corpulence" set a bad example for Pentagon fitness standards.
But as his temporary chief role came to a close and Sean Parnell took the Pentagon chief spokesperson job, Ullyot said he and Hegseth "could not come to an agreement on another good fit for me at DOD. So I informed him today that I will be leaving at the end of this week."
Ullyot said he remains one of Hegseth’s "strongest supporters."
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pentagon-hegseth-power-struggle-leak-probe