Hegseth Uses Internet Searches to Block Senior Officer Promotions

A senior official with knowledge of flag and general officer assignments told MS NOW that officers were later pulled if they were seen as supporting diversity programs, had a role in the Pentagon’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate, took part in the Afghanistan evacuation, or had ties to former Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark A. Milley.

The official, granted anonymity for fear of retaliation, said the account left him stunned.

“I was like ‘you gotta be kidding me’, but of course we need people to get confirmed. We need nominations to go through. We need decisions made,” the official said.

Two officers whose promotions had already been selected through a board process confirmed the account to MS NOW. They said Pentagon officials informed them by phone that their promotions were being withheld and that they were given no chance to respond.

For most, a missed promotion would end their careers. Officers who do not advance to the rank for which they were selected within 18 months are typically forced to retire, the official said.

Internet Searches and Parallel Files

The official described a planned process in Hegseth’s executive office. Staff were told to print internet search results and place them in paper-only files kept apart from the official board record and out of reach of the officers under review. Instructions on the new criteria were given by phone rather than in writing, according to the official.

The files on more than a dozen withheld officers reportedly included Pride Month events and rainbow flags, a diversity committee on the USS Kearsarge, a Hispanic Heritage Month speech on the USS Theodore Roosevelt, an International Women’s Day panel at AFRICOM, and a photograph taken after a Covid-19 vaccination on the USS Carl Vinson.

Of 31 officers selected by a Navy one-star board, about 15 had such reports and nine were withheld, the official said. All of the women and minorities initially selected were removed except one. The official called it the largest group withheld from promotion in the Navy’s history, after six officers were struck in 2016 over possible ties to the Fat Leonard bribery scandal.

A two-star board had similar results, the official said: seven selected officers were withheld, including the only woman chosen and every person of color on the list.

The Associated Press reported in June that Hegseth had struck nine of 31 officers selected for promotion to one-star admiral, including all three women on the list.

Legal Dispute and the Pentagon’s Response

The three officials told MS NOW that the intervention may have broken the law. Cody Harnish, a military defense attorney and former Army judge advocate, said pulling officers from a list after they had been selected “is illegal.”

Harnish said the defense secretary may remove names only below the one-star level and may delay or withhold a promotion only for defined reasons, such as being professionally unqualified, failing “exemplary conduct” standards, pending charges, or substantiated adverse information. Under the Defense Officer Personnel Management Act, an officer facing a delayed promotion is owed written notice and a chance to respond, he said.

“If ‘professionally unqualified’ can mean ‘executed a lawful program the current Secretary opposes,’ the promotion system and law has no function left,” Harnish said.

The only person who can remove an individual name from a list of selected one- and two-star officers is the president, according to the officials. The defense secretary may approve or reject the list as a whole, they said, but may not alter individual names.

Asked about the changes, chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell told MS NOW that Hegseth is “reviving the warrior ethos” and wants senior officers “committed to warfighting, lethality, and dominance in combat.” Parnell did not respond to questions about whether the intervention broke the law.

“Military officers serve at the pleasure of the President and the Secretary, and the Department is committed to ensuring that all advancement is merit-based so that only the best and most qualified gain the privilege of leading our Warfighters in advancing the National Defense Strategy,” he said. “The Secretary has acted and will continue to act within his authority and will not retreat from the historic transformation he has undertaken.”

Since taking office, Hegseth has sought to cut the ranks of generals and flag officers, a step he has said removes redundancy. In September he said he wanted to eliminate 20% of those senior positions. There are more than 800 active-duty generals and admirals.

In a September 2025 speech at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Hegseth said the military under his leadership is “color-blind, gender-neutral, and merit-based.”

“Real toxic leadership is promoting people based on immutable characteristics or quotas instead of based on merit,” he said.

Earlier Reporting and a Senate Inquiry

The MS NOW account follows a New York Times report in March that Hegseth unilaterally struck two Black officers and two women from an Army one-star promotion list of about three dozen names, after Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll had repeatedly refused to remove them.

On July 15, Sens. Brian Schatz, a Hawaii Democrat, and Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat, wrote to Defense Department Inspector General Platte B. Moring III calling any intervention by the defense secretary “highly irregular.”

“Secretary Hegseth’s alleged use of his personal views and perceptions on race and gender to interfere with the promotion process completely nullifies the extensive, competitive, rigorous, and merit-based vetting process of candidates that the selection boards put forward,” they wrote.

The official who spoke to MS NOW said the withholding of promotions, together with the firing of other senior officers, has left many posts unfilled for months and has pushed less experienced deputies into those jobs. The official warned that it could take a decade or more to repair the damage and that women and officers of color may conclude they cannot rise to the top ranks.

Hegseth has also faced a separate political fight in Congress, where Rep. Thomas Massie has reintroduced articles of impeachment over the Iran war, and has removed other senior commanders as pressure over his tenure has mounted after the midterms.