Politico reports:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s controversial chief of staff, who played a central role in a power struggle that gripped the Pentagon, will exit the agency today. Joe Kasper was originally expected to transition to another role within the Defense Department, but is now planning to go back to government relations and consulting, he said in an interview.
A former longtime chief of staff to indicted Rep. Duncan Hunter, Kasper was a leading figure in the firings of senior adviser Dan Caldwell, Hegseth deputy chief of staff Darin Selnick and Colin Carroll, the chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg. The trio were ousted last week in a leak investigation.
Read the full article.
RELATED: Longtime JMG readers will remember that now-former Rep. Duncan Hunter was convicted for spending campaign funds on extramarital affairs with five women. (This was after he sponsored a bill to ban same-sex marriage because Jesus.) His wife was also convicted for spending campaign funds on personal expenses. The most infamous of those personal expenses was $600 for the family rabbit to travel by plane. Hunter resigned from the House in 2020 and was due to start an 11-month prison sentence in January 2021, but Trump pardoned Hunter and his wife after losing the 2020 election.
Hegseth’s Chief of Staff leaving the Pentagon altogether.
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— Maine (@TheMaineWonk) April 24, 2025