Apparently America has two secretaries of War Crimes now.
A stunning new NYT investigation has revealed just how deeply Pete Hegseth’s wife Jennifer has inserted herself into the operation of the Pentagon, serving as her husband’s “most influential adviser and his de facto producer” despite holding no official job in the Defense Department.
Jennifer Hegseth preps her husband for public appearances, sits in on meetings with journalists, brainstorms ideas for Pentagon videos and has even interviewed potential members of his staff.
Such as former Pentagon flack John Ullyot thought he was getting a friendly meet-and-greet with the boss’s wife during the transition. Instead, he says Jennifer grilled him alone for about 40 minutes with “unexpectedly detailed and hard-edged questions,” including how he would deal with hostile media.
But things get considerably more serious when Jennifer follows her husband into national security meetings. Last year, she attended a sensitive meeting with top British defense officials concerning intelligence sharing with Ukraine.
A Trump administration official told the Times that the British were so uneasy discussing sensitive information in front of her that they kept the conversation general, then held a smaller meeting without her to discuss the details.
Denying this, the Pentagon says Jennifer was only there for introductions and has never attended a meeting where classified information was discussed.
Then there’s one explanation for why Pete wants her around so much. He likes having Jennifer travel with him “to keep him out of trouble,” a source told the Times.
Hegseth has a famously documented history of extreme heavy drinking at strip clubs, although he denies ever having had a drinking problem and vowed before becoming defense secretary that he wouldn’t drink on the job.
But Jennifer’s influence extends beyond keeping Pete sober to deciding which journalists should be allowed inside the Pentagon.
The Times reports it was *her* (the ex-journalist!) who pushed to revoke credentials from reporters whose coverage of her husband she disliked.
Hegseth was warned he could face legal problems if he singled out individual journalists, and the Pentagon pivoted to its “media rotation” that removed the Times, NBC News, NPR and Politico from their workspaces.
Ullyot, who worked for Hegseth, summed it up nicely:
“It’s bonkers that a defense secretary would involve his wife in his sensitive official duties … and face zero consequences.”
And the Pentagon’s response?
It calls Jennifer a “vital asset” and says it plans to involve her “even more deeply in the future.” Jennifer Hegseth wasn’t confirmed by the Senate. She wasn’t appointed defense secretary. She doesn’t even work for the Defense Department.
Yet apparently one of the most powerful positions in American national security now comes with a plus-one.
Like and share if you agree Pete Hegseth is the most unqualified and ineffective Secretary of Defense in history, and should be removed from office before he and his missus inflict any more damage on our great country.