Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has fired Lt. Gen. Brett Sylvia, the Joint Staff’s director for strategy, plans and policy. A senior Pentagon official says an inquiry found that Sylvia leaked classified information to the press about the wars with Iran and Ukraine.
The Pentagon has referred the case to the Justice Department, ABC News reported on Thursday, October 29.
Prosecutors haven’t announced any charges, and Sylvia hasn’t commented publicly. The official story has also changed in two days. The Joint Staff first thanked him for his service, then withdrew that statement once the leak accusation surfaced.
For Americans, the case matters for two reasons. The officer who ran the military’s long-range planning office has left a week before the midterms, while the US weighs new strikes on Iran. And it comes in a year when the Pentagon has polygraphed dozens of its own senior officers in search of leakers.
What the Pentagon says Sylvia did
The Atlantic first reported Sylvia’s removal on Wednesday night, October 28, according to Fox News. The Pentagon gave no reason at first.
By Thursday, the Pentagon had one. A senior official told ABC News that Hegseth fired Sylvia after an inquiry found he leaked classified information about Iran, Ukraine “and other matters.” The official cited “severe misconduct” and said Hegseth took “immediate action.”
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on social media that the department acted after “an extensive Air Force OSI investigation.” OSI is the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. Parnell didn’t name Sylvia. He said the matter had gone to the Justice Department for “potential further legal action,” and he had a message for other leakers. “We vowed to find you, and we meant it,” Fox News quoted him as saying.
The most detailed account so far comes from Axios, which reviewed an internal investigation report, as summarized by Iran International. The report says Sylvia admitted on video to leaking classified information about Iran and Ukraine to two reporters over about a year. According to Axios, the disclosures began as early as June 2025 and ran through Signal messages and an in-person meeting at a diner in Arlington, Virginia. There, investigators say, he used notes from a classified report to discuss US aid to Ukraine.
Sylvia told investigators he deleted a Signal message he believed “had something to do with Iran,” along with the whole thread. US officials suspect the deletion was intentional, Axios reported.
A Pentagon official told The Epoch Times that Sylvia began meeting journalists outside the building after Hegseth’s rules required reporters to have escorts inside. None of the officials has said which news stories the alleged leaks fed or which outlets the reporters work for.
Why the accounts don’t line up
The details don’t line up yet, starting with the polygraphs. Officials told Fox News and The Epoch Times that Sylvia failed three polygraph exams. The US official who spoke to Axios said four.
The Joint Staff’s own messaging changed too. Its first statement thanked Sylvia for his “distinguished” service and wished him and his family well. Iran International, citing Reuters, said it also thanked him for 32 years of service. The Joint Staff then withdrew that statement, saying it “did not appropriately reflect the full circumstances,” and declined to comment further, ABC reported.
Even the motive is in dispute. One source told ABC that Hegseth removed Sylvia over a “lack of confidence.” The Atlantic’s sources tied his ouster to tensions with Elbridge Colby, the Pentagon’s policy chief, Fox News reported. Two other Pentagon sources told CBS News the firing related to the polygraph tests but disputed that Sylvia leaked classified information at all, according to Iran International’s account.
Put together, the Pentagon has given a firm accusation through anonymous officials and a spokesman who won’t name the man he’s talking about. Sylvia’s side is missing. Fox News and The Epoch Times both said he hadn’t replied to their requests for comment by publication.
Trump weighed in anyway. He told reporters that Sylvia will have “big problems, long term problems,” Fox News reported.
A leak hunt that started with missile stockpiles
Sylvia’s case lands in the middle of a much larger search, though officials haven’t said whether the two are connected. Over the summer, the Pentagon polygraphed several dozen people, including senior officers on the Joint Staff and at US Central Command, The National News Desk reported on September 4. The leaks under investigation concerned how fast the military was burning through scarce advanced munitions in the Iran war. At the time, sources told CBS News that no one had failed the leak questions.
That subject is sensitive for a reason. The war’s munitions bill alone is about $29 billion of a $47.1 billion total, by the military’s own estimate. Hegseth set up a joint task force with the Justice Department in July to find and prosecute leakers, according to the same report.
What the J5 job does, and what it doesn’t
The J5 is the Joint Staff directorate for long-term strategy, plans and policy. It advises the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Dan Caine. ABC News described it and the operations directorate, the J3, as the Joint Staff’s two most important offices.
Sylvia held the job for about 11 months. The Senate’s executive calendar for December 19, 2024, lists his nomination for a third star and a seat on the United Nations Military Staff Committee. Before that, he commanded the 101st Airborne Division and Fort Campbell, Kentucky, from July 2023 to May 2025, The Epoch Times reported. He graduated from West Point in 1994 and suffered wounds in combat, according to Fox News.
The timing invites a link to possible new Iran strikes. But a Pentagon official told Fox News that Sylvia wasn’t a central planner of the Iran war, which US Central Command runs under Adm. Brad Cooper. Sources also told Fox that the J5 had lost much of its role since spring.
On that account, the firing doesn’t change who would plan or run a new campaign. We covered what the US has told Gulf allies to expect after the midterms separately.
The latest in a long list of removals
Sylvia is the second J5 director to leave under Hegseth. His predecessor, Lt. Gen. Joseph McGee, retired in October 2025 after the administration didn’t renominate him to a new post, ABC reported.
The removals started early. Trump fired Gen. CQ Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs in February 2025, PBS NewsHour reported.
In May 2025, Hegseth ordered a 20% cut in active-duty four-star officers. In April 2026, he forced out the Army’s chief of staff, Gen. Randy George, Defense One reported. Fox News counts nearly two dozen generals, admirals and other senior leaders who have lost or left their posts during Hegseth’s tenure.
Sylvia’s case is different from most of those because it comes with an accusation of a crime. That puts the next step with the Justice Department. It has said only that it has “ongoing investigations related to possible leaks of classified information,” according to Fox News. Whether prosecutors bring charges, and whether the internal report Axios described is ever made public, will decide if the Pentagon’s case holds up outside the building.
