White House Reportedly Directed Department of Defense to Stop Polygraphing for Journalistic Sources

The White House has reportedly directed the Department of Defense to stop polygraphing for leakers after Patrick Reed Weaver, a senior advisor to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, raised concerns.

Dan Lamothe and Ellen Nakashima report for the Washington Post in an article titled, “Hegseth team told to stop polygraph tests after complaint to White House.” Excerpt:

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of polygraph tests to search for people leaking information to the news media was stopped at the direction of the White House after a senior adviser to Hegseth raised alarm to senior officials there about being targeted, U.S. officials and others familiar with the matter said.

The adviser, Patrick Weaver, complained to White House officials this spring with concerns that he could soon be directed by Hegseth or another member of his team to submit to a polygraph test, the people familiar with the matter said. The possibility angered Weaver, an immigration hawk seen within the administration as a loyal foot soldier to President Donald Trump and associate of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity out of concerns for reprisal from the Trump administration.

The White House intervention, which has not previously been reported, came in the form of a phone call by an individual close to the administration after Hegseth’s team had begun administering polygraph tests to people around the defense secretary in April, according to people familiar with the matter, who declined to identify the individual.

Before they were stopped, multiple tests were carried out over several weeks with approval by Hegseth and advice from Tim Parlatore, who has served as both Hegseth’s private attorney and a part-time military aide on his staff.

By the time he approached the White House, polygraph tests already had been administered to members of the Joint Service Interagency Advisory Group, a team in Hegseth’s front office that was assembled to examine how to counter drug cartels and enhance security on the southern border, people familiar with the matter said. The team includes numerous Special Operations troops and representatives from other government agencies, including the FBI.

Col. Ricky Buria, a military aide whom Hegseth has since made a senior adviser, also took a polygraph test and received inconclusive results, officials said, a detail first reported by the Guardian. He submitted paperwork to retire from the Marine Corps and become a political appointee in April.

Tests also had been threatened by Hegseth against others, including two top military officers: Navy Adm. Christopher Grady, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Army Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Sims, the director of the Joint Staff. Those threats were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Read the rest of the article here. (A paywall-free archived version may be found here.)

Although it’s not mentioned in the article, Patrick Weaver indicates on his LinkedIn profile that he served as a full-time senior advisor to the White House from January to March 2025. Weaver’s appointment as a senior advisor to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was announced by the Pentagon on 24 April 2025. Thus, it is plausible that Weaver would have had high-level connections at the White House with whom he may have addressed his concerns about polygraph screening. Given polygraphy’s complete lack of scientific underpinnings, Weaver’s concerns would have been entirely justified.

There is no indication whether any other governmental departments have received White House instructions to stop using polygraphs in an attempt to identify journalistic sources, but such any such action would be rational, as there is no documented instance of a polygraph dragnet ever solving a federal leak investigation.

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