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US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth's chief of staff, Joe Kasper, officially stepped down from his position on Thursday, according to a report by The Washington Post.
Kasper stated that his departure was voluntary and that he would transition into a part-time advisory role as a special government employee, focusing on areas such as science, technology, and industry. While the specifics of his new responsibilities and official title remain undefined, the role allows him to work up to 130 days annually in a government capacity. Kasper had been discussing the move with colleagues for weeks, and Hegseth appeared to allude to the possibility in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday. Kasper, he said, is a "great American," and was "certainly not fired," The Washington Post reported. Kasper's departure comes amid reported tensions between him and other senior officials within Hegseth's team. These internal divisions have raised concerns about the current leadership direction at the Pentagon. Recently, the New York Times reported that Hegseth had shared sensitive information about the planned strike in Yemen on March 15 in a private group chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer. Hegseth shared sensitive details about a planned military operation targeting the Houthis in Yemen through a private Signal group chat on his personal phone CNN reported, citing three sources. The chat was initially created during Hegseth's confirmation hearings to coordinate with his closest allies to strategise, two sources said. However, he continued to use it post-confirmation, maintaining communication with a group of over a dozen people. The second Signal chat is in addition to the one Hegseth used to communicate with Cabinet officials last month about military plans. That chat is under investigation by the Defence Department's acting inspector general. Earlier this month, in a letter to Hegseth, Acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins notified him of an upcoming evaluation following a request from the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Stebbins had said that the evaluation is in response to recent public reports regarding Hegseth's use of an "unclassified commercial messaging application" to discuss military actions in Yemen in March. A leaked Signal chat had revealed that senior Trump administration officials, including Hegseth, National Security Adviser Michael Waltz, and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe, shared details about an upcoming military strike on Yemen, The Atlantic reported. The messages, inadvertently sent to The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, had raised serious concerns about operational security. (ANI)
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