Pentagon launches probe including polygraphs after Musk visit

Roxana Tiron, Bloomberg News on Mar 22, 2025

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The Pentagon has initiated an investigation incorporating polygraph tests to hunt down leakers after Elon Musk called for the prosecution of any Defense Department officials spreading “maliciously false information” about his dealings with the military.

In response to accusations surrounding Musk’s recent visit to the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, called for an investigation into “unauthorized disclosures” of national security information with those found responsible to “be referred to the appropriate criminal law enforcement entity for criminal prosecution.”

Musk, the world’s richest man with billions of dollars in defense contracts, visited the Pentagon on Friday for a conversation about cost-cutting and innovation. The visit sparked controversy before it began after the New York Times reported that Musk was to get a top secret briefing about the U.S. military’s planning for any potential war with China.

The Times, which cited multiple unidentified U.S. officials familiar with the matter, said Musk was scheduled to view sensitive U.S. military strategies concerning China, potentially exposing critical Pentagon secrets given Musk’s substantial business interests there. Musk’s views on China have also provoked concern. He’s called Taiwan “an integral part of China” and once suggested that the self-ruled island become an administrative zone of the country.

Both President Donald Trump and defense chief Hegseth denied there were ever any plans for Musk to get such a high-level briefing. In the Oval Office on Friday, Trump acknowledged Musk’s potential conflict when he explained why he’d never give him such a briefing.

Further intensifying the scrutiny, Musk took to X, a social media platform he owns, insisting on the prosecution of Pentagon officials leaking misleading information to the media.

Hegseth has been one of the most vocal champions of Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, boasting of hundreds of millions of dollars in spending cuts done in collaboration with DOGE staffers.

The investigation into leaks “will commence immediately and culminate in a report to the Secretary of Defense,” Kasper wrote in a memo issued late on March 21. “The report will include a complete record of unauthorized disclosures within the Department of Defense and recommendations to improve such efforts.”