Pete Hegseth’s polygraph theater

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s paranoia over leaks has undermined the Pentagon and press freedom. His measures range from the extreme to the petty: restricting reporter access to the Pentagon, firing Stars and Stripes news staff over unfavorable coverage and hiring influencers to fluff his raging but insecure little ego.

However, even the Defense Department’s calisthenics-addled secretary has managed to outdo himself. In his most draconian move yet, the Pentagon polygraphed some 50 high-ranking military officers and civilian officials on the Joint Staff, which coordinates operations, policy and war plans with combatant commanders worldwide. Hegseth made the top brass sit for polygraphs over news reports about the war with Iran; specifically, how it has depleted crucial supplies of sophisticated munitions, including Patriot interceptors and long-range missiles. He still doesn’t understand that his polygraph flex makes him more twerp than Top Gun among those he is supposed to be leading.

This was hardly the first time Hegseth tried to weaponize polygraphs against his own people. In the spring of 2025, his personal attorney and political adviser Tim Parlatore was involved in efforts to polygraph Patrick Weaver, the secretary’s senior adviser. Weaver complained to the White House, which intervened and ordered Hegseth’s team to stand down. Then, in October 2025, Hegseth’s team proposed nondisclosure agreements and broad, random polygraphs for more than 5,000 military, civilian and contractor personnel in the Office of the Secretary of Defense and Joint Staff.

Those episodes predated the current two waves of polygraphs in 2026 over sources for news stories about the U.S.’s dwindling munitions inventory during the Iran war. Early this summer, several dozen personnel — including high-ranking combatant leaders and others from U.S. Central Command — were given lie detector tests. That brings us to the most recent, especially broad round of polygraphs in August on the same topic. 

Trump is obviously unglued about the munitions disclosures, rage-posting on Truth Social that “[t]he U.S. has massive amounts of ‘munitions,’ especially of certain types . . . The ‘leakers’ of these treasonous statements are being hunted down. Long term jail sentences will be sought!” It’s as if the president is more concerned with plugging leaks than providing for the common defense. But if he really cared about running a tighter ship, he should look across the Potomac at the unqualified cosplayer he picked to lead the leakiest Pentagon in modern history.

Hegseth’s actions are polygraphy theater. Any halfway decent lawyer knows that polygraphs are so unreliable that the results are inadmissible in court. That’s because they measure physiology, not truth. Additionally, despite Trump’s cartoonish conception of lie detector tests, you don’t “pass” or “fail” one — just like you don’t “pass” or “fail” a cognitive assessment. 

Additionally, people are found to be deceptive on polygraphs for all sorts of reasons, from having a Catholic guilt complex to being too self-aware. Lie detector tests also have an up to 20% false positive rate, meaning ten truthful, high-ranking public servants and soldiers could be found deceptive, and have their careers disrupted or destroyed, for a leak done by a single person. Counterintuitively, the people who do well on polygraphs are often sociopaths — Pope Leo might flunk one, but Trump, in his own words, would ace it.

While polygraphs are a routine part of government and military background checks for certain sensitive positions and for security clearance re-ups, Hegseth has weaponized them against top military officers and his own inner circle. It’s unheard of, an abuse of power, and demoralizing to make senior leadership submit to testing en masse. The Defense Department’s own rules specifically state that “adverse action shall not be taken against a person for refusal to take a polygraph examination in criminal or unauthorized disclosure cases,” which this is. That begs the question of why they were performed, other than raw intimidation, deterring would-be whistleblowers, and punishing the disloyal.

Moreover, Pentagon rules require that for issue-specific counterintelligence polygraphs like these, investigators must have interviewed the examinee, reasonably believed that he or she knew about or was involved in the leak, pursued other less aggressive and less intrusive investigative avenues, and determined that the polygraphs were an essential tool. That apparently wasn’t the case here. 

In 2002, the FBI tried to interview me about a 9/11-related press leak, and I’ve represented more than a dozen national security employees in leak investigations. What I can tell you is that one or two people likely leaked the munitions shortages, not 50, and it’s unclear what examinees discussed during their pre-test interview. Inspectors general are the ones who usually conduct leak investigations, which can take weeks or months. Lawyers are often involved, and sometimes so is the FBI. That raises the question of who is even leading this leak investigation, given that Trump hollowed out inspector general’s offices by firing or forcing out more than 20 and leaving their positions vacant.

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Fifty people is also an unusual size for an “access universe.” While, normally, hundreds of cleared people might have access to information about the running short on defense interceptors and long-range strike missiles, basic missile math already revealed this to the world (including our enemies) back in March. The 50-person figure would be more appropriate for those who received a particular document, and the universe of people who actually opened or downloaded it would be even smaller — perhaps 10 or fewer.

It’s pretty clear that other less aggressive avenues were not exhausted, nor less intrusive means used, before Hegseth hooked his own people up to polygraphs. We’ve heard nothing about access and audit-log analysis, government computer and phone forensics, or efforts to obtain third-party communications — which can involve subpoenas, court orders or warrants. 

Trump publicly calling the leaks treasonous — treason can carry the death penalty — and Hegseth’s bombastic posturing alone could trigger physiological spikes on polygraphs.That makes it all the more surprising and telling that there were no reported failures by examinees.

The purpose of the polygraphs also matters. Detecting the unauthorized disclosure of national defense information is one thing. Hunting down press leaks that report the government’s illegality, ineptitude or ill-equippedness in an undeclared war is not. The public has a right to know what the government is doing in their name with their lives and taxpayer dollars. Polygraphing 50 people at once seems much more like a deterrence and intimidation tactic than an efficient leak investigation. That distinction is something worth examining.

Hegseth’s self-inflicted wounds to the United States’ alliances — including the Caribbean boat strikes and blowing up the girls’ elementary school in Iran — are bad enough. But to sucker punch your own soldiers and civil servants is a new low. His draconian measures aren’t about the war against Iran. They’re about the war on whistleblowers and others deemed insufficiently loyal. That has everything to do with raw power, intimidation and information control — and nothing to do with U.S. armament, protecting classified national security information or keeping us safe. Just like war itself, polygraphs should be a lever of last resort.