Watchdog: Pentagon chief’s secret hospital stay ‘unnecessarily’ risky
By Noah Robertson
Jan 15, 2025, 12:19 PM
A Pentagon watchdog found that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin needlessly risked U.S. national security by not immediately informing Congress and the White House of his hospitalization last January.
“Although we found no adverse consequences to DoD operations arising from how the hospitalizations we reviewed were handled, the risks to our national defense, including the command and control of the DoD’s critical national security operations, were increased unnecessarily,” wrote the Department of Defense inspector general in a new report.
Austin was admitted to the hospital multiple times in late 2023 and early 2024 while undergoing treatment for prostate cancer. After experiencing severe pain following a procedure, he was taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center via ambulance on Jan. 1, 2024. His condition worsened, and Austin transitioned to a more intense wing of the hospital, where he no longer had access to the secure communications required of his job.
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2025/01/15/watchdog-pentagon-chiefs-secret-hospital-stay-unnecessarily-risky/
