Following a Thursday, 20 March 2025 report by the New York Times that “[t]he Pentagon was scheduled on Friday to brief Elon Musk on the U.S. military’s plan for any war that might break out with China,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joseph R. “Joe” Kasper on Friday, 21 March signed a memorandum announcing the beginning of an investigation “into unauthorized disclosures” and seeking support from the Director for Defense Intelligence (Counterintelligence, Law Enforcement, and Security).
Kasper’s memorandum directs that “The use of polygraphs in the execution of this investigation will be in accordance with applicable law and policy.”
The use of polygraphs within the Department of Defense is governed by Department of Defense Instruction 5210.91 “Polygraph and Credibility Assessment (PCA) Procedures,” Enclosure 4, para. 1.a.(2) of which authorizes the use of polygraphs in counterintelligence investigations when “[t]here is a suspected unauthorized disclosure of defense information, national intelligence, or indications of treason, spying, espionage, sabotage, subversion, or terrorism.” It does not specifically mention speaking with journalists.
It should be noted that there is no documented instance of the polygraph ever solving a federal leak investigation. AntiPolygraph.org welcomes comment from any persons with knowledge of any use of polygraphs in this investigation. We can be contacted privately and securely via Signal or SimpleX Chat.
Update: AntiPolygraph.org co-founder George Maschke spoke with Tara Copp of the Associated Press about this DoD leak investigation. See her report, “Pentagon is the lastest agency to announce a leak investigation that could include polygraphs.”