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Who is Colin Carroll? All about alleged Pentagon leaker as he sits for an interview with Megyn Kelly after being fired
Colin Carroll, the chief of staff to Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve Feinberg, who was placed on administrative leave in mid-April 2025, appeared on The Megyn Kelly Show on April 26, 2025, to share his side of the story with the public.
As reported by CNN on April 16, Colin Carroll is the third-ranking officer to be put on administrative leave, following Dan Caldwell, a senior adviser to US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Darin Selnick, Hegseth's deputy chief of staff.
All three were suspended from their respective positions at the Pentagon, the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense, amid suspicions of their involvement in a potential information leak within the defense department.
In The Megyn Kelly Show, Carroll expressed that he has been "wrongly accused," and denied the allegations against him for leaking confidential information, stating, "I know for certain I did not leak anything." He also asserted that, apart from these accusations, he hasn't engaged in any "criminal" activity.
Colin Carroll further referred to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's interview on Fox & Friends on April 22. He expressed that he felt "not allowed" to discuss his investigation with the public.
"After his[Pete Hegseth] interview on Fox & Friends this week, I felt like I'm being told I can't talk about my investigation, but he is directing the investigation and on national television. He is basically saying everyone that we're criminal or we're gonna be exonerated."
He conveyed his desire to share his side of the story with the public, adding:
"I don't know, it was hard to interpret what was going on. I'm here because I want the American public to know the truth," Colin Carroll added.
Carroll also shared that speaking out publicly would allow him to prove his innocence and expressed hope that he would be "exonerated."
"I don't feel betrayed"— Colin Carroll responds to the alleged Pentagon information leak allegation
Later in the interview, Colin Carroll suggested that Dan Caldwell and Darin Selnick might feel more disappointed than he does about the administrative leave, as he is not as close to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
"I don't feel betrayed, no, I think Dan and Darin definitely do, I wasn't that close to the secretary, so I don't feel betrayed," Colin Carroll said.
Carroll explained that there are more important lessons to be learned from this situation, especially regarding "how to build a team to accomplish the president's agenda."
He clarified that they are not "disgruntled" former employees, sharing that he has "upended" his life to be in this position, by giving up a "great" job, and sacrificing time with his family to "actually try and deliver what the president wants."
Carroll further reacted to a clip of Pete Hegseth at the White House Easter Egg Roll on April 22, 2025, with C-SPAN, where Hegseth claimed that media outlets "take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations."
In the interview, Hegseth also expressed that they are "putting the Pentagon back" in the hands of "war fighters", and anonymous smears from "disgruntled former employees" do not matter to him.
Carroll responded to Hegseth's claims of calling him, along with Darin and Dan, "disgruntled." He clarified that he is not frustrated and wants to return to his position. He expressed that he had a great time at his job, saying:
"It's been an awesome ninety days, I think that we have a great next three and a half years in front of us to deliver what the president wants. I'm very confident in my own abilities to solve problems. I am part of the solution, and I really want to go back. I don't know if they'll take me, I know there's a path back or not, but that's what I want," Colin Carroll continued.
Pete Hegseth went further on Fox & Friends, stating that it's "great" if the accused individuals are "exonerated" after the investigations. However, he clarified that the investigations at the Pentagon are taken seriously.
He made it clear that while he has known the accused individuals for quite some time, it's not his job to protect them, "it's my job to protect national security, the president of the United States," Hegseth added.
Responding to Pete Hegseth's claims, Colin questioned the fairness of how things were handled, clarifying that the leak investigations were not about him or the others involved until after they were terminated. He expressed that if there is a path to be exonerated, they should have been placed on administrative leave and properly investigated.
Colin further expressed that nobody had "actually pinned anything on us." He also claimed that the easiest way to remove them from their position was to link them with the leak investigation.
According to his LinkedIn, Colin Carroll has previously worked as the head of government business at Applied Intuition and chief operations officer at the DoD Joint Artificial Intelligence Center. Before being sworn in as Chief of Staff, he worked at Anduril Industries.
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