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The Pentagon's intelligence and law enforcement arms are investigating
what it says are leaks of national security information. Defense
Department personnel could face polygraphs in the latest such inquiry by
the Trump administration.

A memo late Friday from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's chief of staff
Joe Kasper referred to "recent unauthorized disclosures" of such
information but provided no details about alleged leaks.

Earlier in the day, President Trump rejected reports that adviser Elon
Musk would be briefed on how the United States would fight a hypothetical
war with China.

"If this effort results in information identifying a party responsible for
an unauthorized disclosure," then such information "will be referred to
the appropriate criminal entity for criminal prosecution," according to
the memo.

Earlier this month, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem pledged to use
lie detector tests on employees to identify those who may be leaking information about operations to the media.

In a video posted to social media, Noem wrote that the department had "identified two leakers of information here at the Department of Homeland Security who have been telling individuals about our operations and
putting law enforcement lives in jeopardy. We plan to prosecute these two individuals and hold them accountable for what they've done."

The polygraph tests at the DHS had been going on for several weeks, a spokesperson CBS News at the time. It wasn't clear how many employees had undergone them.

The results of that investigation have not yet been released.

The Justice Department on Friday announced an investigation into "the
selective leak of inaccurate, but nevertheless classified, information"
from intelligence agencies about Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang whose members in the U.S. are being targeted for removal by the Republican administration.

Leaks occur in every administration � and government officials can be the source � as a trial balloon to test how a potential policy decision will
be received.

While polygraph exams are typically not admissible in court proceedings,
they are frequently used by federal law enforcement agencies and for
national security clearances. In 1998, the Supreme Court ruled they were
also inadmissible in military justice proceedings.

They are inadmissible because they are unreliable and often result in
false positives, said George Maschke, a former Army interrogator and
reserve intelligence officer who went on to found AntiPolygraph.org.
Mashke failed a polygraph himself when applying to the FBI.

But they have been intermittently used since the 1990s to intimidate and
scare sources from talking to reporters, Maschke said. A 1999 Pentagon
report said it was expanding the program to use polygraphs on defense
personnel "if classified information they had access to has been leaked."

https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/pentagon-announces-investigation-leaks- polygraph-tests-pete-hegseth/?intcid=CNR-02-0623

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