The Pentagon’s delayed disclosure is facing intense scrutiny on Capitol Hill and beyond.
The White House instructed the Pentagon to release its first statement about Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s hospitalization after learning there was no disclosure plan in place, two senior administration officials said, adding a new layer to the Pentagon’s timeline for how it eventually released information held quiet for days.
Austin was hospitalized on Jan. 1 following complications from a cancer treatment procedure. Defense Department Chief of Staff Kelly Magsamen informed national security adviser Jake Sullivan of Austin’s condition for the first time three days later. Sullivan and White House Chief of Staff Jeffrey Zients then urged the Pentagon’s senior leaders to quickly make a public statement about Austin’s situation, said the officials, granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.
This would indicate that Kathleen Hicks, the deputy secretary of Defense, wasn’t the initiator of the Pentagon’s public statement, as a senior defense official previously told reporters.
