Former Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot was requested to resign this week following a contentious begin for Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth’s communications workplace, a senior protection official instructed The Related Press on Thursday.
Ullyot was one in all Hegseth’s preliminary communications workplace hires and oversaw a few of its most extremely seen however controversial strikes, together with a broad edict to the army companies to strip away on-line photos that had been thought of a promotion of range, fairness or inclusion.
That directive led to public outcry when photos of nationwide heroes like Jackie Robinson and others had been eliminated. Ullyot instructed Politico on Wednesday he had come to the choice to resign. A senior protection official conversant in the choice mentioned that wasn’t the case and that Hegseth’s workplace had requested that Ullyot resign.
Ullyot didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Ullyot’s departure Wednesday was not tied to the Protection Division’s ongoing investigation into unauthorized disclosures of knowledge, which to this point has led to a few different senior Pentagon aides being escorted out of the constructing.
Colin Carroll, chief of employees to Deputy Protection Secretary Stephen Feinberg; Darin Selnick, deputy chief of employees for Hegseth; and Dan Caldwell, an aide to Hegseth, had been positioned on depart amid the leak investigation, two different U.S. officers mentioned.
It was not instantly clear what leaks led to the departures.
All three officers spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate particulars that haven’t been made public.
Tara Copp is a Pentagon correspondent for the Related Press. She was beforehand Pentagon bureau chief for Sightline Media Group.
