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Pentagon removes Gen. Milley’s security detail, revokes his clearance

President Donald Trump speaks as Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, Army Gen. Mark Milley, looks on in the Cabinet Room at the White House on Oct. 7, 2019, in Washington, D.C.  (Mark Wilson)
By Eric Schmitt and David E. Sanger New York Times

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has told Gen. Mark A. Milley, retired chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that he is removing his security detail, revoking his security clearance, and ordering an inspector-general inquiry into his record, the Pentagon said late Tuesday.

Hegseth’s spokesperson, John Ullyot, said in a statement that the secretary directed the investigation to determine whether “it is appropriate” to review the rank upon retirement for Milley, who stood up to President Donald Trump in his first term. Essentially, Hegseth is asking whether Milley should be demoted.

“We have received the request and we are reviewing it,” Mollie Halpern, a spokesperson for the acting Defense Department inspector general, said of the referral to examine Milley’s actions as chair.

The general retired in 2023, and at a ceremony marking the occasion he reminded troops that they took an oath to the Constitution and not to a “a king, or a queen, or to a tyrant or dictator, and we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator.” Senior Pentagon officials late Tuesday sought to cast Milley as an insubordinate political operator while in the chair’s job.

“Undermining the chain of command is corrosive to our national security, and restoring accountability is a priority for the Defense Department under President Trump’s leadership,” Joe Kasper, Hegseth’s chief of staff, said in a statement late Tuesday.

Milley could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Just days before Milley’s retirement ceremony, Trump, planning a political comeback, suggested that the general had committed treason and should be put to death.

Amid continued threats from Trump of retribution against his enemies upon returning to office, Milley received a preemptive pardon from President Joe Biden hours before he left office last week. (In his first week back in the White House, Trump had the general’s portrait removed from the hallway in the Pentagon outside the chair’s offices.)

Since Milley has been pardoned, he cannot be court-martialed. But a finding against him could lead to a decision to reduce his rank, even in retirement.

Milley and other former Trump administration officials had been assigned government security details because they remained under threat following the U.S. drone strike that killed powerful Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani in early 2020.

Two Republican Senate allies of Trump urged him Sunday to rethink his decision to strip security details from the former advisers who have been targeted by Iran, saying the move could chill his current aides from doing their jobs effectively.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., spoke after Trump abruptly halted government security protection for three officials from his first term who were involved in his Iran policy and have remained under threat.

Fox News earlier reported that Hegseth was moving to revoke Milley’s security detail and order the inspector-general review.

As the newly sworn-in defense secretary, Hegseth has been a sharp critic of Milley.

Milley’s split with Trump had its roots in his decision to apologize also for inserting himself into politics when he walked alongside Trump in 2020, through Lafayette Square, for a photo op after authorities used tear gas and rubber bullets to clear the area of peaceful protesters. “I should not have been there,” he said later. “My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.”

Trump’s supporters have also attacked Milley over his contacts with his Chinese counterpart during the first Trump administration, assuring them that the United States was not seeking to strike them, or trigger a military crisis.

Milley, 66, was promoted to chair of the Joint Chiefs by Trump in 2019. At the time, the president was impressed with his military record and his bearing. But he quickly soured on him. A book published by Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, “I Alone Can Fix It,” reported that Milley was worried that Trump might attempt to stage a coup after he lost the 2020 election. He made efforts to ensure a peaceful transfer of power, and issued a statement condemning the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.