DOD top staffer exits after just months in his position
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s office is once again undergoing a change, and another staffer is exiting the DOD office without much explanation, as The Daily Mail reported.
Senior Advisor Justin Fulcher announced on Saturday that he’d be leaving the Pentagon office, saying that he’d only ever planned to work in government for six months.
This was just af few months after four other top officials left Hegseth’s office one right after another.
Fulcher previously worked for the Department of Government Efficiency on defense issues, but was promoted to his most recent position in April.
From the departing staffer
During a Saturday interview, Fulcher said that his six months of government were up, and he was leaving “as planned.”
However, the Washington Post reported that the recently departed worker’s desk was moved outside of Hegseth’s office to a place further down the hall.
Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement to NewsNation that “The Department of Defense is grateful to Justin Fulcher for his work on behalf of President Trump and Secretary Hegseth.
“We wish him well in his future endeavors.”
A dramatic removal
Since April of this year, there have been several others who have taken their leave of the department, including Dan Caldwell.
Caldwell’s exit was a more dramatic one, as he was one of Hegseth’s senior advisers and had to be escorted out of the Pentagon on April 15 of this year.
He was put on administrative leave as part of a probe into information leaks from the department where he worked. Two other individuals from his department were under suspicion. Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll, were also placed on leave the next day.
More departure details
In addition to Cladwell, Selnick, and Carroll, a press assistant to Hegseth, John Ullyot, was also asked to resign.
At the time, Ullyot said the Pentagon was in “full-blow meltdown,” according to an opinion piece for Politico. He also, however, rejected the claim that the three were pushed out for leaking information.
“In the aftermath, Defense Department officials working for Hegseth tried to smear the aides anonymously to reporters, claiming they were fired for leaking sensitive information as part of an investigation ordered earlier this month,” the former employee said.
Hegseth is running just one department that is seeing major upheaval under the Trump administration, as the current president attempts to make positive changes to how the Biden administration executed government work.