Pete Hegseth’s chief of staff Joe Kasper out at Pentagon as ‘turf war’ results in another shakeup: report

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth lost another member of his team Thursday as former chief of staff Joe Kasper is reportedly leaving the Pentagon amid a “turf war” that has resulted in several high-level departures and threats of subjecting staff to polygraph tests.

Kasper, who left his role as chief of staff last week, was expected to stay on in a different capacity at the Pentagon but has decided to move to the private sector amid the turmoil, according to Politico.

His exit comes a month after he fired off a memo announcing an investigation into “unauthorized disclosures of sensitive and classified information across the Department of Defense.”

Pentagon senior adviser Dan Caldwell, former deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll, former chief of staff to the deputy secretary of defense, were each escorted out of the building in a series of firings last week in the aftermath of the leak probe.

The investigation was launched after Hegseth reportedly became enraged that word of Department of Government Efficiency chief Elon Musk’s March visit to the Pentagon was leaked to the New York Times.

“I’ll hook you up to a f–king polygraph!” Hegseth shouted at Adm. Christopher Grady, the then-acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, after learning of the leak,  Thursday.

The defense secretary also accused several others of being responsible for the leak, including Lt. Gen. Doug Sims, the Joint Staff director, whom Hegseth also threatened to hook up to a polygraph machine.

Kasper’s March memo noted that polygraph tests could be administered “in accordance with applicable law and policy” as part of the hunt for the leakers.

It’s unclear if anyone was actually subjected to a polygraph test as part of the investigation.

Caldwell, Carroll and Selnick accused “unnamed Pentagon officials” of slandering their “character with baseless attacks” and suggested “leaks” were not the reason why they were fired, in a joint statement. 

“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,” the trio made by Caldwell last week.  

“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,” they added. 

A source told The Post that the trio clashed with Kasper before he ordered the leak probe — and that the firings were the consequence of a “turf war” involving Hegseth’s former chief of staff, who “felt threatened that more and more of his portfolio … was being given to” Selnick and Caldwell. 

Some of Kasper’s nominal responsibilities that Selnick and Caldwell had been overseeing included “recommendations on appointments, decisions on high-level official visits and official travel planning — much of what was emerging as a priority for that given week,” according to the source.

The Pentagon did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.