Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired the Pentagon's top military planner, Army Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia, after investigators accused him of leaking classified information about the Iran war and Russia's war in Ukraine to journalists, and the Pentagon has referred the case to the Justice Department. Sylvia was removed as director of strategy, plans and policy on the Joint Staff — the job known inside the Pentagon as the J5, which develops military strategy and coordinates war planning for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the president. A referral is not a charge: Sylvia has not been charged with any crime, and the allegations against him have not been proven anywhere.
The accusations come from Pentagon officials. They say Sylvia failed three polygraph examinations about sharing classified information with the press, and that he was accused of misconduct for leaking classified information related to the two wars. In a statement on Thursday, a senior Pentagon official said Sylvia "was fired by Secretary Hegseth for severe misconduct," and accused him of working around the Pentagon's own press rules: "Due to the Pentagon's media policy requiring journalists to have escorts in the building, Sylvia began meeting with journalists outside of the Pentagon in order to leak classified information." Officials have not said what specific information was allegedly passed, to which journalists, or when.
The Pentagon set out its case in its own words. "The extent of the leaking became so critical that Secretary Hegseth took immediate action and fired Sylvia in order to protect national security," the senior official said. "Urgent action was needed and could not wait another second." The department's chief spokesperson, Sean Parnell, said the action followed an extensive probe by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and was among multiple matters referred to the Justice Department for potential further legal action. "The Department of War has zero tolerance for the intentional, unauthorized disclosure of classified information," Parnell said. "Anyone who compromises sensitive national security information puts the lives of our Warriors at risk and undermines every military operation that keeps our country safe." He added: "We vowed to find you, and we meant it."
Sylvia had held the J5 job for 11 months, taking it over in December. Before that he commanded the Army's 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, until May 2025, and he had earlier served as the J5's vice director. A 1994 West Point graduate with 32 years of service, he deployed repeatedly to Iraq and Afghanistan, was wounded in combat, and holds the Purple Heart and six Bronze Star Medals. The J5 sits at the centre of American military planning, drafting the strategy and policy advice the chairman gives the president. Pentagon officials were quick to add one limit: Sylvia was not the central planner of the Iran war itself — that responsibility rests with U.S. Central Command and its commander, Adm. Brad Cooper.
There is also a second account of why he fell. Defense officials say the rationale mirrored other removals before it: Hegseth had lost confidence in Sylvia, and Sylvia did not get along with Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon's No. 3 official and its top civilian for policy. The first official word on Wednesday was a gracious one — the Joint Staff thanked Sylvia and his family "for their 32 years of distinguished service to our nation" and wished them the best. But the chairman's spokesperson later revised that statement, saying: "Upon further review, we determined that the statement did not appropriately reflect the full circumstances" of his departure.
Sylvia himself has said nothing publicly. He did not respond to requests for comment, no statement from him or any lawyer has appeared, and by Wednesday evening his biography had been taken down from the Joint Chiefs' website. No replacement has been named. One report says he retired from the Army after being removed from the post; that has not been confirmed anywhere else, and the Justice Department has said nothing publicly about what it will do with the referral.
The firing is the sharpest escalation yet of the leak hunt Hegseth has run since the summer. The Pentagon opened a broad investigation into unauthorized disclosures after reporting revealed sensitive details about the depletion of American munitions stockpiles during the Iran war, and about 50 Joint Staff personnel were put through polygraph exams in August as investigators hunted the source. In July, Hegseth and the Justice Department set up a joint task force to identify and prosecute leakers, with the Pentagon's general counsel empowered to demand records from any part of the department on 48 hours' notice. Hegseth stated the principle himself: "Leaked information risks lives. Access to confidential and secret information is a sacred trust, and those who betray that trust will be met with the full force of the law."
Sylvia is not the first senior figure removed in that campaign. Last year three senior Pentagon officials — Dan Caldwell, a former senior adviser to Hegseth; Darin Selnick, Hegseth's deputy chief of staff; and Colin Carroll, chief of staff to the deputy secretary — were placed on leave and then fired over leak accusations that were never proven in court. Sylvia's own predecessor in the J5 chair, Lt. Gen. Joseph McGee, was forced to retire last October. Lt. Gen. Douglas Sims, then director of the Joint Staff, was removed earlier this year. In all, nearly two dozen generals, admirals and other senior leaders — by one count at least 26 — have been fired, pushed out or have departed under Hegseth, who has ordered the senior ranks cut by 20 percent and answered his critics at Quantico: "Now the media calls that a purge. I call it accountability and long overdue, and frankly, the bare minimum."
The timing raises the stakes. The J5 chair is empty, with no successor named, just as President Trump weighs renewed strikes on Iran after next week's midterm elections and American forces build up in the region. "This is not the moment when you would want to lose the J5," a former Joint Chiefs official said. "This person would serve as a critical link between the operational force, the department policy, and the White House." The Pentagon's argument is straightforward: when classified war plans and weapons figures reach newspapers, the troops carrying out those plans are the ones exposed, and the country pays for it. Against that stands the plain record: the investigation is still running, the charges officials describe are allegations, and Brett Sylvia — a general who spent 32 years in uniform and was wounded in America's wars — has not been convicted, charged or even heard in his own defence. What happens next sits with the Justice Department.
📰 ProfiloPolitics Member News — choose your news, share it, earn credit
Members choose the news they want — share it and earn credit.
📣 Join ProfiloPolitics on Telegram — breaking news first
Follow @profilopoliticsnews for every update on this story.