Hegseth fires the Pentagon's top military planner over alleged leaks of classified information

The Pentagon's top planning job is empty again. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth fired Army Lieutenant General Brett Sylvia on Wednesday. Sylvia held the Joint Staff post called the J5, director for strategy, plans and policy, which advises the chairman on plans for American engagement around the world.

The first public accounts gave no reason. Later accounts from defense officials filled in the department's case. A defense official told reporters that Sylvia is the subject of an investigation for allegedly leaking classified information about the Iran war, the war between Russia and Ukraine, and other matters, that he met journalists outside the Pentagon after the department required reporters to be escorted inside the building, and that he failed three polygraph examinations about the alleged disclosures. The department described the dismissal to Military.com as the result of severe misconduct.

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell appeared to confirm the firing in a post on X on Thursday morning, without naming Sylvia. Following an extensive Air Force Office of Special Investigations inquiry, the department took necessary personnel action to protect sensitive information, Parnell wrote. This matter, along with others, has been referred to the Justice Department for potential further legal action. He added that the department has zero tolerance for the intentional, unauthorized disclosure of classified information. CNN reached out to Sylvia for comment. The Justice Department declined to comment while acknowledging ongoing investigations into possible unauthorized disclosures.

Sylvia commanded the Army's 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, until May 2025, and he was nominated for the Joint Staff job by former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin near the end of the Biden administration. By Wednesday evening his biography had been removed from the Joint Chiefs website. A Joint Staff spokesperson thanked him and his family for 32 years of service. There is no immediate replacement.

He is the second officer Hegseth has pushed out of the J5 post. His predecessor, Lieutenant General Joseph McGee, was forced to retire last October after months of tension with the secretary. Sylvia joins a long list of generals and admirals fired, forced to retire or otherwise removed under Hegseth, nearly two dozen by the Associated Press count, most of them without a public explanation. Hegseth said last month that he has ordered the number of top officers cut by 20 percent by January 1, 2027.

The timing gives the firing its weight. Two American officials told CNN this week that forces in the Middle East are prepared to launch new, potentially major operations against Iran within 96 hours of an order from President Trump, who has said he wants to finish the job in Iran and has held strikes open as an option after Tuesday's midterm elections. The planning desk that would normally help shape that work now has no confirmed head.