Hegseth Orders Pentagon to Put Press Corps on a Short Leash After Epidemic of Leaks

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Friday that the Pentagon is instituting new rules for the press corps that covers the department, which is responsible for safeguarding some of our nation’s most sensitive national security/intelligence information. Meanwhile, some in the media covering the military are already griping about it being an attack on the First Amendment.

The SecDef outlined immediate orders, including the assignment of official escorts for journalists while at the Pentagon, after a string of leaks have sought to stymie President Trump’s agenda for the American people:

The measures, which take effect immediately, bar credentialed reporters from most of the Department of Defense headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, unless they have an official approval and escort.

“While the Department remains committed to transparency, the Department is equally obligated to protect CSNI (classified intelligence) and sensitive information – the unauthorized disclosure of which could put the lives of U.S. Service members in danger,” Hegseth said in a memorandum.

He called the protection of classified national intelligence information and operational security “an unwavering imperative for the Department.”

As we’ve written here at RedState, leakers have been suspected in several agencies and areas in the federal government over the past few months, including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the DoD, and the national intelligence community.

Action has already happened, not only with firings but referrals to the Justice Department, as DNI Tulsi Gabbard said she was forced to do about several individuals–one of whom leaked classfied information to WaPo, “and the other gave sensitive information to the New York Times.” A third person, Gabbard said in late April, was about to be referred for also leaking to the Washington Post.

What is the Trump administration doing to combat this epidemic of leaks? One of the solutions, as we’ve reported, has been mandatory lie detector tests.

The Pentagon Press Association reacted by calling it  a “direct attack on the freedom of the press.”

“The decision is purportedly based on concerns about operational security. But the Pentagon Press Corps has had access to non-secured, unclassified spaces in the Pentagon for decades,” the media member organization’s statement read, “under Republican and Democratic administrations, including in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, without any concern about OP-SEC from DoD leadership.”

Remember when some of them got their panties in a twist over how the new management at the DoD changed things up earlier in 2025?

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