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Two of the senior aides to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth who were marched out of the Pentagon at his direction last week have been quickly and completely exonerated for allegedly leaking classified information to the media, NBC News has learned.
Hegseth, under scrutiny for sharing classified information on a Signal chat group that included his wife and brother, has repeatedly blamed what he calls a smear campaign against him on “leakers,” even though two of the men he appears to be referring to were quickly cleared of leaking any information at all.
Senior aides Darin Selnick and Dan Caldwell were escorted from the Pentagon last week and placed on administrative leave for what a Pentagon official at the time said were “unauthorized disclosures” of classified information. They were formally fired days later. But within days, government officials had exonerated both men completely, according to four individuals, including three government officials familiar with the matter.
The men were not contacted by the Office of Special Investigations, a Pentagon office, because the initial investigation, by another government agency, Washington Headquarters Services, looked into the matter and ended the investigative process there, a person familiar with the matter said.
Hegseth himself said this week that he believed some of the men he sacked would be exonerated.
“So once a leaker, always a leaker,” he said. “We looked for leakers because we take it very seriously and we will do the investigation, and if those people are exonerated, fantastic,” Hegseth said on Fox News on Tuesday, just three days after the two men were formally fired.
Trump lambasted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this afternoon for making an “inflammatory” statement that he said is making it hard to bring an end to the Ukraine-Russia war.
Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that Zelenskyy said that Ukraine won’t recognize the occupation of Crimea by Russia, which took control of the peninsula in 2014.
“It’s inflammatory statements like Zelenskyy’s that makes it so difficult to settle this War. He has nothing to boast about! The situation for Ukraine is dire — He can have Peace or, he can fight for another three years before losing the whole Country,” Trump wrote.
Trump said he has “nothing to do with Russia” and said that Zelenskyy’s remarks will “do nothing but prolong the ‘killing field,’ and nobody wants that!”
“We are very close to a Deal, but the man with ‘no cards to play’ should now, finally, GET IT DONE,” he said.
Trump said this morning that he’s “actively” talking with China about the tariffs situation.
“We’re going to have a fair deal with China. It’s going to be fair,” Trump told reporters when asked if he’s considering lowering tariffs on China, which are currently set at 145%.
“Everything’s active,” he continued, “Everybody wants to be a part of what we’re doing. They know that they can’t get away with it any longer, but they’re still going to do fine, and we’re going to have a country that you can be proud of, not a laughing stock all over the world for many years.”
Trump dodged a question yesterday about whether he has spoken with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but said that the final percentage for the tariff placed on China won’t be “anywhere near” the current number in the end.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., announced today that he will not seek re-election in 2026 after serving for almost three decades in the Senate.
He holds the position of Senate minority whip, the No. 2 position in the Democratic caucus, as well as ranking member of the Judiciary Committee.
“The decision of whether to run for re-election has not been easy. I truly love the job of being a United States Senator. But in my heart, I know it’s time to pass the torch,” he said in a statement and video posted to social media. “So, I am announcing today that I will not be seeking re-election at the end of my term.”
Read the full story here.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent asserted this morning that the Trump administration’s mantra of “America first” does not mean that it wants to be isolationist. He argued that it means the opposite.
“America first does not mean America alone. To the contrary, it is a call for deeper collaboration and mutual respect among trade partners,” Bessent said in remarks at the Institute of International Finance’s Global Outlook Forum in Washington.
“Far from stepping back, America first seeks to expand U.S. leadership and international institutions like the IMF and the World Bank by embracing a stronger leadership role,” he said.
Bessent touted Trump’s sweeping tariffs and said that more than 100 countries have approached the U.S. in its effort at rebalancing global trade. He said China, meanwhile, needs to move its economy away from “export over capacity and towards supporting its own consumers and domestic demand.”
Bessent slammed the IMF and the World Bank, saying they both are “falling short” in their missions.
“The Bretton Woods institutions must step back from their sprawling and unfocused agendas, which have stifled their ability to deliver on their core mandates,” he said. “Going forward, the Trump administration will leverage U.S. leadership and influence at these institutions. and push them to accomplish their very important mandates.”
Bessent also said he wanted to send a strong message about procurement policies when it comes to Ukraine. He said that anyone “who has financed or supplied the Russian war machine will be eligible for funds earmarked for Ukraine’s reconstruction.”
Reporting from Hong Kong
China responded to Trump’s perceived softening remarks on tariffs by repeating its calls for the U.S. to negotiate based on equality and mutual respect, rather than threats.
“China’s stance has always been clear: We do not want a fight, but we are not afraid of one,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said today at a regular briefing in Beijing. “If there is a fight, we will see it through. If there are talks, our door is always open.”
Trump said yesterday that the U.S. was “going to be very nice” in talks with China and that final tariffs on Chinese goods would “not be anywhere near” the existing 145%, but that “ultimately, they have to make a deal.” His remarks came the same day his Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said the two countries’ mutual embargoes were unsustainable and predicted a near-term de-escalation in the U.S.-China tariff dispute.
Trump’s comments were widely discussed on Chinese social media, where one of the trending hashtags today was #TrumpWimpsOut. “He’s extremely unreliable,” read one popular comment on the Chinese social media platform Weibo. “His attitude changes more quickly than the weather in June.”
Michelle Obama said in a new podcast episode today that therapy is helping her “work out” the eight years that she was in the White House as first lady.
Speaking on the podcast she co-hosts with her brother, “IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson,” the former first lady said she’s “at this stage in life where I have to define my life on my terms for the first time. So what are those terms? And going to therapy, just to work all that out.”
“Like, what happened that eight years that we were in the White House? What did that do to me internally, my soul. We made it through, we got out alive. I hope we made the country proud. My girls, thank God, are whole. But what happened to me?” she said. “And going through therapy is getting me to look at the fact that maybe, maybe finally I’m good enough.”
The remarks came during an interview with actor Taraji P. Henson that touched on the expectations placed on women and the challenges faced by Black women.
During the podcast, Obama also talked about her decision not to attend Trump’s inauguration in January.
“It took everything in my power to not do the thing that was perceived as right, but do the things that was right for me — that was a hard thing for me to do. I had to basically trick myself out of it. And it started with not having anything to wear,” Obama said.
“I was like, if I’m not going to do this thing I got to tell my team I don’t even want to have a dress ready, right? Because it’s so easy to just say let me do the right thing,” she said.
Obama previously addressed divorce rumors amid her decision not to attend Trump’s inauguration. Speaking during a podcast with Sophia Bush released this month, Obama said people promoting those claims “couldn’t even fathom that I was making a choice for myself that they had to assume that my husband and I are divorcing.”
In an opinion piece in The New York Times, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro called on leaders to act with “moral clarity” in the wake of an arson attack on his executive mansion, where he lives with his wife and children.
In the piece, the Democratic governor described the night of the attack, when he and his wife were forced to wake up, get their children out of bed and evacuate the mansion.
“The devastation was shocking,” Shapiro wrote about the damage in the residence, later comparing the act to the attempted assassination of Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City.
“This type of violence has no place in our society, regardless of what motivates it,” Shapiro wrote. “It doesn’t matter if it’s coming from one side or the other, directed at one party or another or one person or another. This level of violence has to stop. It is our shared responsibility to do better.”
Shapiro didn’t mention other elected leaders by name, but wrote, “I believe our political divide can be repaired. But our leaders must act with moral clarity and take their cues from the good people of this nation, who in times of tragedy always seem to find our better angels.”
Three congressional Democrats are demanding answers from the Justice Department over its reported attempt to block a former pardon attorney from participating in an oversight hearing earlier this month.
The letter to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche from Sens. Adam Schiff, of California, and Cory Booker, of New Jersey, and Rep. Jamie Raskin, of Maryland, said they are alarmed over his decision to send armed deputy U.S. Marshals to the home of Elizabeth Oyer on April 4. They allegedly warned her against testifying at a hearing April 7.
“This thuggish act is an escalation of this Administration’s attacks on career officials across the Department of Justice, as well as a blatant attempt to engage in intimidation tactics to silence former employees,” they wrote. “Sending armed officers to Ms. Oyer’s residence is a clear abuse of the Department of Justice’s authority and resources, which exist to serve and protect the public, not intimidate congressional witnesses.”
The hearing, which was not an official one as it was only run by Democrats who don’t control either chamber, focused on Trump’s attacks on the rule of law and weaponization of the Justice Department.
The three Democrats asked Blanche in their letter to answer questions by April 28 surrounding the decision to send the Marshals to Oyer’s home.
The DOJ didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Vice President JD Vance doubled down today on the Trump administration’s threat that the U.S. would walk away from the peace negotiations over the Ukraine-Russia war if both sides don’t cooperate.
“We’ve issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and Ukrainians, and it’s time for them to either say yes or for the United States to walk away from this process,” Vance told reporters in Agra, India, during his overseas trip.
The vice president said that the U.S. has engaged in “an extraordinary amount of diplomacy” and has tried to understand Ukraine’s and Russia’s perspectives in terms of what each side cares about the most.
“I think that we put together a very fair proposal. We’re going to see if the Europeans, the Russians and the Ukrainians are ultimately able to get this thing over the finish line,” he said. “Again, I feel pretty optimistic about it.”
He said it’s now time, however, for the parties to take the final step by saying, “We’re going to stop the killing, we’re going to freeze the territorial lines at some level close to where they are today, and we’re going to actually put in place the kind of long-term diplomatic settlement that hopefully will lead to long-term peace.”
Reporting from Washington
America may be well on its way to forgetting Joe Biden; its president isn’t.
Trump spoke Biden’s name more than a dozen times Jan. 20, day one of his second presidency, and from that point forward he has basically never stopped.
As he nears the 100th day of his new term, Trump has invoked his predecessor with a persistence that suggests the two are in the final throes of a bitter campaign. They aren’t and won’t ever be again: Biden pulled his name off the 2024 ballot and left elective office for good. But for Trump, there is a certain political upside in making Biden a perpetual bogeyman.
Read the full story here.
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