News/Commentary

Joint Staff hit with polygraph tests as Pentagon leak crisis escalates

September 5, 2026 | | Print Article

The Department of War has initiated a polygraph crackdown to identify who’s been leaking confidential information to the press.

In recent weeks, the press has been awash with reports about how the United States is running precariously low on munitions and other supplies. The reports have deeply angered President Donald Trump, who earlier this week called the authors behind these reports “treasonous SCUM.”

According to the latest report filed Friday by The New York Times, the Department of War (DOW) has since upped the ante by beginning to administer lie-detector tests to the military’s top brass. The first targets of the polygraph tests were 50 members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Federal “investigators asked military officers and civilian employees on the Joint Staff if they disclosed classified information to members of the press, and about whether they provided information about diminished U.S. munitions stocks,” according to the Times.

The tests were conducted in August. Pressed by the Times, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell did not explicitly deny that these tests have been occurring.

He said only that the DOW “does not comment on internal personnel or investigative matters but takes all leaks of classified national security information extremely seriously and investigates accordingly.”

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“Securing classified information is critical to ensuring the security of the United States and of our troops deployed around the world,” he added.

The Times was beside itself over the polygraph tests.

“The scope of the investigation is without parallel,” the leftist paper, known by some as the New York Slime, fretted. “Mass polygraph tests have never been administered to the top ranks of the U.S. military in modern history.”

But the truth is, this crackdown has been a long time coming. In fact, War Secretary Pete Hegseth first threatened a crackdown in March of 2025 after the Times reported that he was preparing to brief Elon Musk about China.

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According to a Wall Street Journal report that broke soon afterward, Hegseth was so infuriated by the Times’ reporting that he demanded proof from Adm. Christopher Grady, the then-acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that he hadn’t been behind this particular leak.

“I’ll hook you up to a f–king polygraph!” Hegseth shouted at Grady, according to the Journal’s anonymous sources.

Hegseth at the time reportedly also threatened Lt. Gen. Doug Sims, the Joint Staff director.

Yet he didn’t actually announce a crackdown until July of this year, when he publicly revealed that the DOW and Department of Justice had formed a joint task force to identify and prosecute leakers:

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“To combat the dangers that leaks pose, effective immediately I have delegated tasking authority to the War Department’s Office of General Counsel, empowering OGC to request and receive all information, records, and support across the department concerning media leak investigations,” he said.

“Leaked information risks lives. These new tools and processes will greatly assist us in protecting our joint force. The security of our nation cannot be bargaining chip for those who seek momentary headlines. 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,” he added.

Vivek Saxena
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