Pentagon plan would force staff to sign NDAs, face random polygraphs as Hegseth tries to plug leaks

The Pentagon plans to enforce nondisclosure agreements and random polygraph tests for over 5000 personnel. Photo / Getty Images

The United States Pentagon plans to impose strict nondisclosure agreements and random polygraph testing for scores of people in its headquarters, including many top officials, according to two people familiar with the proposal and documents obtained by the Washington Post, escalating Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s war on leakers and internal dissent.

All military service members, civilian employees and contract workers within the Office of the Defence Secretary and the Joint Staff, estimated to be more than 5000 personnel, would be required to sign a nondisclosure agreement that “prohibits the release of non-public information without approval or through a defined process”, according to a draft memo from Deputy Defence Secretary Steve Feinberg.

A separate document also from Feinberg would establish a programme to randomly polygraph those officials.

The documents do not prescribe a limit on who would be subjected to these agreements and tests, suggesting it could include everyone from four-star generals to administrative assistants.

The efforts are part of a wider strategy by the Trump Administration and the Pentagon to ferret out officials deemed insufficiently loyal or who provide information to reporters.

Pentagon spokespeople did not return a request for comment.

Former officials and national security lawyers pointed to already existing restrictions and penalties for unauthorised release of information, indicating these new measures were meant to further frighten and deter personnel.

“This seems to be far more directed at ensuring loyalty to DOD [the Department of Defence] and the Trump Administration leadership rather than countering any foreign espionage,” said Mark Zaid, a lawyer who has represented multiple whistleblowers and government officials targeted by the Trump Administration.

“There are reasons why individuals were not required to take polygraphs before. And I would question why now the polygraph, and an overbroad NDA is being required other than to intimidate the workforce and ensure tighter control.”

The Pentagon rankled the White House earlier this year after it had begun using polygraphs to search for people leaking information to the news media.

A political appointee and Hegseth adviser, Patrick Weaver, complained to White House officials in the northern spring with concerns that he and members of his team could soon be ordered to submit to a polygraph test. The White House intervened to temporarily end the practice.

The Pentagon’s proposed NDA prohibits personnel from providing any information that is not public “without approval or through a defined process”. which aligns with language the Defence Department is currently requiring reporters to sign to maintain their Pentagon press credentials.

It is one of many policies being rolled out by Hegseth - including new limits on the military’s independent service inspectors general and equal opportunity offices - that may ultimately reduce the number of avenues service members or defence personnel have to point out potential problems in the Pentagon without going through their chain of command.

“The protection of sensitive information is paramount to our national security, the safety of our warfighters, and the preservation of critical decision space for our senior leaders,” Feinberg wrote in the NDA policy memo.

Failure to comply, he said, could result in punishment, including through the military’s justice system for service members who do not sign it.

Federal law makes it a crime for personnel to disclose classified information to unauthorised individuals. Federal regulations further bar personnel from disclosing sensitive but unclassified information, which can result in administrative or criminal punishment.

The unsigned and undated document is still in the deliberation stage and has not yet been approved, said one of the officials, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the documents.

Another document outlines the establishment of a “random polygraph programme”.

Lie detector tests every few years are standard procedure in the intelligence community as a requirement to retain a security clearance, and the FBI has begun using them to identify the source of information leaks to the media, but the use of random polygraphs at the Pentagon would be new, according to Feinberg’s directive and former senior officials.

Staff in the Office of the Secretary of Defence and the Joint Staff who have access to classified information are currently not required to submit to random polygraph testing, Feinberg wrote. Under the proposed policy, those staff would now face randomised polygraph testing and regular security evaluation interviews.

“There may be some goodness in doing this,” said a former senior defence official who held a clearance.

But, the former official said, it is apparent that “the real concern is not about foreign intelligence. It’s about tamping down people who they think are leaking to the press ... These are pucker factor, scare tactics. The overriding theme here is to try and cause as much fear in the workplace as possible.”

The former official also noted the redundancy of the proposed nondisclosure policy.

“If you have contacts with the press, you’re supposed to disclose them. If you have a speaking engagement, you’re supposed to have your remarks cleared regardless of whether the event is classified or unclassified. If you’re read into intelligence programmes, you’re already covered [by the nondisclosure obligation],” the official said.

The renewed use of polygraphs and NDAs come as Hegseth is pushing for extraordinary restrictions on reporters at the Pentagon that would further shield his decisions from public scrutiny.

Hegseth’s administration has held very few press engagements in the main Pentagon briefing room - only six since January.

Two of those times occurred directly after the high-profile B-2 bomber strikes in Iran this June. Previous administrations conducted regular weekly press briefings between the defence secretary’s spokesman and reporters to answer questions on military operations.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks to senior military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico. Photo / Getty Images

Hegseth has engaged with reporters on some of his trips, although his office has limited what press travel with him, and those engagements have dwindled over the past few months. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine has yet to independently brief the media or take reporters on trips, as his predecessors did.

Hegseth’s staff, under his orders, have kicked many news organisations out of the desks they had inside the building and issued guidance to the military services to cut down on their press engagements.

More recently, the Pentagon has issued a requirement that reporters covering the military sign an agreement not to solicit or gather any information - even unclassified - that hasn’t been expressly authorised for release, the penalty for which could be press credential revocation. Reporters have until later this month to agree to those terms.

The Defence Department has isolated itself further by cancelling long-standing engagements at think tank events and forums, where experts mingle with military leaders to discuss national security priorities.

The Pentagon said in July that pulling out of events and public talks was an attempt “to ensure the Department of Defence is not lending its name and credibility to organisations, forums and events that run counter to the values of this Administration.”

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