John Ullyot, former Pentagon press secretary, is set to resign this week. Win McNamee/Getty Images 2025-04-17T16:30:26Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? The Pentagon has seen shake-ups this week, with top officials leaving amid leak investigations and other rifts. Three officials were placed on leave over leaks, but that hasn't been the only upheaval. Nearly the entire Defense Digital Team is expected to head out amid DOGE chaos. It's been a turbulent week for personnel shake-ups at the Pentagon, and it's only Thursday.Three officials are on leave pending investigations into leaked information, and a fourth elected to resign because he didn't want to be anyone's number two. On top of that, almost an entire team of 14 staffers is resigning en masse after being sidelined by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.Here's where we're seeing upheaval:Top Pentagon officials put on leaveColin Carroll, the chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, Dan Caldwell, a senior adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Darin Selnick, the Defense Department's deputy chief of staff, were all placed on administrative leave this week.This development came amid a broad and seemingly chaotic investigation into recent leaks.The leaks included information related to military plans for the Panama Canal, the Red Sea, and a trip by Elon Musk to the Pentagon to discuss China and US-provided intelligence for Ukraine, Politico reported.The Pentagon confirmed to Business Insider on Thursday that Carroll, Caldwell, and Selnick were all placed on administrative leave amid the fallout. No further information was provided. The Department of Defense is undergoing a tumultuous departure of key personnel. Jen Golbeck/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Caldwell and Selnick were also escorted out of the building by security and saw their Pentagon facility access revoked for the time being, Politico reported.Leaks are not new for the Department of Defense and other federal agencies. Many government officials leak information to the press on poor decisions they feel could be damaging. There have been crackdowns in the past, but the Trump administration appears to be taking its response to a new level in moves that could have a chilling effect on accountability.A top public affairs official resignsIn addition to those shake-ups, Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot is heading out after telling Politico he had never planned to work under a more senior press secretary. Ullyot served as the top spokesman until February; then, the current press secretary, Sean Parnell, took over. "I made clear to Secretary Hegseth before the inauguration that I was not interested in being number two to anyone in public affairs," Ullyot told Politico."Last month, as that time approached, the Secretary and I talked and could not come to an agreement on another good fit for me at DOD. So I informed him today that I will be leaving at the end of this week," he said.Ullyot oversaw the controversial decisions to revamp news outlet offices at the Pentagon, and he was heavily involved in defending the department's removal of webpages deemed "DEI." Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth appears to be overseeing a crackdown on leaks of information. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images A team opts to ejectAnd then on top of all this, the Defense Digital Service staff, the team in charge of the Pentagon's technology development, has almost entirely elected to resign over the next month, Politico reported. The issue behind the departures is forced irrelevance."Either we die quickly or we die slowly," Jennifer Hay, the group's director, told Politico."The reason we stuck it out as long as we have is that we thought we were going to be called in," Hay said of her team, but that doesn't appear to have happened.Hay, and other officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, explained the decision to resign comes as DOGE has taken over and eliminated similar government offices. The DDS is expected to be absorbed by the Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office.The Pentagon did not respond to BI when asked about any suspected consequences of so many departures from DDS. Recommended video