Three senior staffers at the Pentagon who were placed on administrative leave before being fired on Friday, following claims of an ongoing investigation into “unauthorized disclosures” at the DoD; Dan Caldwell, a top adviser to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth; Darin Selnick, Pentagon Deputy Chief of Staff; and Colin Carroll, Chief of Staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg; have released a joint-statement tonight:

“We are incredibly disappointed by the manner in which our service at the Department of Defense ended. Unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door. All three of us served our country honorably in uniform - for two of us, this included deployments to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, based on our collective service, we understand the importance of information security and worked every day to protect it. At this time, we still have not been told what exactly we were investigated for, if there is still an active investigation, or if there was even a real investigation of “leaks” to begin with. While this experience has been unconscionable, we remain supportive of the Trump-Vance Administration’s mission to make the Pentagon great again and achieve peace through strength. We hope in the future to support those efforts in different capacities.”