Secretary of War Pete Hegseth fired a senior Army general this week after the general admitted to sharing classified information with multiple reporters from different outlets.
Army Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia confessed to leaking information about the Ukraine and Iran wars to two separate reporters over a one-year period, according to a Pentagon report reviewed by Axios.
“He had trouble passing multiple polygraph interviews,” the report said, with a U.S. official telling the outlet he failed four tests.
The report said Sylvia, the Pentagon’s top military planner at the time, made “unauthorized disclosures to the media,” and that he “was cooperative with answering questions about interactions with the media to resolve this, and provided his personal phone for a forensics examination.”
Sylvia’s suspected disclosures began around June 2025 and included leaks via the Signal app, as well as a meeting at Silver Diner in Virginia, according to the outlet.
The report said the diner meeting took place because the reporter’s “access to the Pentagon was revoked between meetings.”
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“During the meeting at the diner, [Sylvia] relied on notes he took while reviewing a classified secret report to orally give [redacted] information on U.S. assistance to Ukraine,” the report said.
The reporter was apparently writing a book and met with Sylvia twice. The Pentagon investigation emphasized Sylvia “did not coordinate these meetings with [the Pentagon’s Public Affairs Office], or seek to have the information reviewed before providing it to the reporter.”
As for the second reporter, U.S. officials said Sylvia delivered the classified information through Signal. Sylvia said he accidentally deleted their conversation, but the officials suspect it was intentional.
“Sometime between June or July, Sylvia received Signal messages from [redacted]. Sylvia is unable to recall exactly what was in that message,” the report said. “But he believes it had something to do with Iran.”
The report said Sylvia claimed he did not respond to the message and tried to delete it, but accidentally deleted the whole conversation instead.
Additionally, in one news story that said 20 officials criticized Pentagon leadership, Sylvia admitted to being one of them, according to the report.
President Donald Trump told reporters on Thursday that Sylvia was going to have “big problems, long-term problems.”
Sylvia’s termination comes after Hegseth announced a joint task force with the Justice Department in July focused on identifying Pentagon leakers. The Office of General Counsel was told to prioritize prosecuting those who share undisclosed information with the media.
Nearly two dozen generals, admirals, and other senior leaders have been fired, pushed out, or have departed under Hegseth’s leadership, according to Fox News.
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