Days before Pete Hegseth fired three top aides last month over a Pentagon leak investigation into the disclosure of classified materials, according to four people familiar with the episode, a recently hired senior adviser said he could help with the inquiry.

The adviser, Justin Fulcher, suggested to Hegseth’s then chief of staff, Joe Kasper, and Hegseth’s personal lawyer, Tim Parlatore, that he knew of warrantless surveillance conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA) that had identified the leakers.

Fulcher offered to share the supposed evidence as long as he could help run the investigation, three of the people said. But when he eventually sat down with officials, it became clear he had no evidence of a wiretap, and the Pentagon had been duped.

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President Trump on Monday said he would support arresting California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) after Newsom dared the White House’s border czar to do so amid a clash over protests in Los Angeles that center on immigration.

Upon returning from Camp David to the White House on Monday, Trump was asked if his border czar Tom Homan should arrest Newsom in the wake of suggestions to do so over the weekend as protests erupted over immigration raids.

“I would do it if I were Tom,” Trump responded.

“I think it’s great. Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing,” Trump said. “Look, I like Gavin Newsom. He’s a nice guy. But he’s grossly incompetent.”

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The Defense Department’s relationship with reporters has gone from bad to worse following a string of missives from Secretary Pete Hegseth and his office aimed at controlling the Pentagon press corps.

Hegseth’s war on the media includes taking desks away from legacy outlets, locking the doors to one of the few places reporters have access to the internet in the Pentagon, and restricting their movement within the building.

Compounding the breakdown in media relations is a staffing shortage in the Pentagon’s public affairs shop, with at least 12 officials in the office reportedly leaving in recent weeks. The office officially held 32 people at the start of the year.

That has left one of the government’s largest agencies often unresponsive amid a steady stream of scandals and public relations snafus, though it maintains an active “DOD Rapid Response” account on the social platform X, which posted on Saturday, “we will always deliver on our promise of transparency.”

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