US Defence Secretary fires top military lawyers, says not ‘well-suited’ for duty

On Monday, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said that he was replacing the senior military lawyers because he wasn’t certain they were “well-suited” to make suggestions when legal directives were issued.

Speaking at the outset of a meeting with Saudi Arabia’s defence minister, Hegseth declined to answer a question about why the Trump administration chose a retired general to be the next Joint Chiefs chairman when he lacks the legal requirements for the position.

On Friday, President Donald Trump unexpectedly removed the chairman, Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr., and Hegseth followed suit by removing Navy Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the commander of naval operations, and Air Force Gen. James Slife, the deputy chief of the Air Force.

He also said he was “requesting nominations” for the jobs of judge advocate general, or JAG, for the Army, Navy and Air Force.

He did not identify the lawyers by name. The Navy JAG, Vice Adm. Christopher French, retired about two months ago, and there was already an ongoing effort to seek a replacement. The Army JAG, Lt. Gen. Joseph B. Berger III, and Air Force JAG, Lt. Gen. Charles Plummer, were fired.

The removals, which occurred without any specific grounds for their actions, sparked a new wave of concern within the Pentagon. They also contributed to the greater uncertainty about the shifting terms of Elon Musk’s demand that federal employees reveal recent job successes by the end of Monday or face termination, despite government officials subsequently stating that the mandate is voluntary.

On Monday, military and civilian employees at the Pentagon juggled their usual national security jobs with mounting concern that anybody may be next on the firing line.

Hegseth has justified Trump’s termination of Brown, claiming it was not unusual and that the president is entitled to choose his own team. The defence secretary contended that prior presidents made modifications to military personnel.

Trump’s choice of retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Dan Caine is unusual. Caine would have to come back onto active duty, but he does not meet the legal requirements for the top post. According to law, a chairman must have served as a combatant commander or service chief.

Those requirements can be waived by the president. Historically, Pentagon leaders have deliberately shifted top admirals and generals into a job as service chief for even a brief period of time in order to qualify them for the chairman’s post.

In recent decades, a number of three-star and four-star officers have been fired, but Pentagon leaders have routinely made clear why they were ousted. Those reasons included disagreements over the conduct of the Iraq or Afghanistan wars, problems with the oversight of America’s nuclear arsenal and public statements critical of the president and other leaders.

Brown, a history-making fighter pilot and only the second Black general to serve as chairman, is the first in that post to be fired in recent history. Hegseth made it clear before he took the secretary’s job that he thought Brown should be fired, and he questioned whether Brown got the job because he was Black.

Hegseth has also repeatedly argued that military officers would be reviewed “based on meritocracy.” It’s unclear, however, how Franchetti, Slife and the lawyers were evaluated and what meritocracy they were found to lack.

As a result, Pentagon workers are left to decipher whether the officers were fired due to political reasons or because of their race or gender. Hegseth has laid out a campaign to rid the military of leaders who support diversity and equity in the ranks. And there have been persistent threats from the Trump administration that military officers advocating diversity and equity — or so-called “wokeism” — could be targeted.

Hegseth has said that efforts to expand diversity and equity have eroded the military’s readiness.