Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s security requirements are so extensive that it is placing a strain on the U.S. Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, according to a report.
The Washington Post reports that the CID, which is responsible for protecting top Pentagon officials as well as serving as the Army’s law enforcment arm, has been forced to draft agents who would otherwise be investigating criminal offenses concerning members of the Armed Forces to help watch over Hegseth’s family and their properties in D.C., Minnesota and Tennessee.
“I’ve never seen this many security teams for one guy,” one official told the newspaper. “Nobody has.”
The CID reportedly maintains around 1,500 agents in total, around 150 of whom are typically assigned to VIP security details.
But since Hegseth took office in January, the number shifted over into personal protection roles has risen to between 400 and 500, according to two differing estimates the paper received.
One CID official quoted by the Post expressed their frustration with the situation by saying agents were being prevented from “doing what we are supposed to be doing” in order to “sit on luggage” or “sit in the cars on the driveway.”
Others complained of having to shepherd the secretary’s children to school or patrol the perimeter of his properties.
“It is literally taking away from [CID’s] law enforcement mission,” they said. “You are taking hundreds of people out of the field to provide this level of protection.”
One of the reasons for the heightened security surrounding the secretary is the fact that he received a bomb threat at his Tennessee home late last year shortly after he was nominated to his post by President Donald Trump, which came a matter of months after two attempts were made on Trump’s own life during the campaign, the first of which saw the Secret Service heavily criticized.
Another is the complexity of Hegseth’s blended family, which includes one child from his marriage to Jennifer Hegseth as well as three from her previous marriage and another three from his.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell reacted angrily to the Post’s reporting and warned in a statement that the media scrutinizing a cabinet secretary’s security arrangements “puts lives at risk,” adding that Hegseth’s were “appropriate” and that “any action pertaining to the security of Secretary Hegseth and his family has been in response to the threat environment and at the full recommendation of the Army Criminal Investigation Division.”
The Independent has also reached out to the Department of Defense for additional comment.
Hegseth’s reign as the nation’s top defense official has been tumultuous so far, with U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin’s departure on Monday only the latest in an ongoing shake-up that has seen the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the chief of naval operations, the commandant of the Coast Guard, and the vice chief of staff of the Air Force all changed in recent months.
The secretary has also struggled to replace his own chief of staff, spokesman and senior aides after they left and found himself caught up in the “Signalgate” scandal, which erupted in March when Trump’s short-lived national security adviser Mike Waltz accidentally added Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg to a group chat in which top secret information about an upcoming bombing raid on Houthi rebels in Yemen was discussed.
In addition, Hegseth, a former Fox News weekend host, has been caught up in a number of culture war issues, from the renaming of the U.S.S. Harvey Milk to questions arising from his decision to post a video on X in which a Christian nationalist pastor expressed his support for depriving women of the vote.
