#secrecy
2 entries with this tag
The Pentagon Secretly Put MAGA Social-Media Influencers — Retired Colonels With Hundreds of Thousands of Followers Who Spend Their Days Praising Defense Secretary Hegseth and Attacking the Reporters Who Scrutinize Him — on the Government Payroll as "Special Government Employees," in Undisclosed Roles With Official Email Addresses but No Stated Duties, and the Pentagon Won't Say What They Do or Whether Taxpayers Are Paying Them
According to a Washington Post investigation published August 30, 2026, the Pentagon has quietly installed several conservative military veterans with large online followings into government positions — declining to disclose their assignments — where they amplify Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's viewpoints and attack those who scrutinize the Trump administration. Among them: Rob Maness, a retired Air Force colonel with roughly 130,000 followers on X; Kurt Schlichter, a retired Army colonel and columnist with nearly 620,000 followers; and Thomas Anderson, a retired colonel who regularly defends Hegseth to his 320,000-plus followers. They were brought on as "special government employees" or "highly qualified experts," hold official Pentagon email addresses, and at least two report to the office of Anthony Tata, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness — in roles that the Post reports could shape policy. Yet the Pentagon refused to tell the Post what these people actually do, how long their jobs last, or whether they are drawing a taxpayer-funded salary. In other words: the Defense Department appears to have put partisan influencers on the public payroll to run domestic political messaging for the Secretary and to go after his critics, and then declined to account for any of it. The military is supposed to serve the whole country and stay out of partisan politics. This turns a slice of it into Hegseth's personal PR and troll operation, paid for — as far as anyone outside will confirm — by the public it is aimed at.
Trump's Own Justice Department Issued a Memo Declaring He Can Hide His Conversations With Private, Outside Advisers — Billionaires, Fixers, Private Lawyers, Even State Officials — Under "Executive Privilege," Stretching a Doctrine the Supreme Court Already Ruled Isn't Absolute, to Wall Off His Shadow Advisers From Congress Right Before the Midterms
On August 11, 2026, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel published a 21-page opinion, signed by Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser, declaring that executive privilege can shield the president's communications with "private advisers" — a category the memo defines to include essentially anyone Trump consults outside the executive branch, "whether they be members of the public, state officials, or employees of other branches of the federal government." It is the first time the Justice Department has explicitly extended executive privilege beyond the president and his immediate White House staff to private citizens. Historically the privilege reached only official advisers, and the Supreme Court held in United States v. Nixon (1974) that it is not absolute and yields in criminal cases. The immediate beneficiary is Boris Epshteyn — the outside Trump adviser and "fixer" whom the American Bar Association subpoenaed, and who coordinated the campaign of pressure that produced nearly $1 billion in pledged free legal work from law firms, and who helped steer the lawyers in Trump's sham IRS-immunity litigation. The memo would let all of that stay hidden. OLC opinions are not binding on courts, but they govern how the executive branch behaves, and this one is transparently timed: issued months before the midterms, it is pre-emptive armor to defeat the wave of congressional investigations the White House expects if Democrats retake the House. It converts a narrow, court-limited doctrine into a blanket secrecy cloak for government-by-crony — a way to keep the public from ever learning which unelected billionaires and operatives are shaping official decisions, and what they said.