10
Loading video...
By Ellie Cook
Senior Defense Reporter
0
Share
Newsweek is a Trust Project member
See more of our trusted coverage when you search.Prefer Newsweek on Googleto see more of our trusted coverage when you search.
The Pentagon has defended Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and his wife after it emerged Jennifer Hegseth had worked with a consulting firm with alleged links to a major U.S. military supplier.
Public disclosure documents published in late September showed Mrs. Hegseth had held a consulting role with prominent Washington, D.C.-based conservative public relations strategists Watchtower.
The records offer little additional insight, including how much money, if any, she gained from this position and whether she continues to offer services to the firm. Other income amounts recorded under the section "Spouse's Employment Assets & Income and Retirement Accounts" range from "None (or less than $200)" to "$5,001 - $15,000."
Read More on News
Defense giant Lockheed Martin was among Watchtower's clients, unnamed sources told Politico in 2025.
Watchtower was co-founded in early 2025 by Kevin McCarthy, the former Republican House speaker, and several other influential Republicans. "I don’t do any work for Lockheed," he told Politico last year.
Nearly three-quarters of Lockheed Martin's sales in 2025 came from the U.S. government, the overwhelming majority of which came from the Department of Defense—which Hegseth has rebranded the Department of War.
It's not clear if the defense company is currently on the firm's client list. A spokesperson for Lockheed Martin told Politico it frequently works with other companies but did not directly address whether the arms manufacturer collaborates with Watchtower.
The company did not respond to a Newsweek written request for additional information, and Newsweek has been unable to verify the claim. There is no evidence Jennifer Hegseth worked with Lockheed Martin, advised Watchtower on defense matters or influenced Pentagon decisions.
Both Pete and Jennifer Hegseth are "in full compliance with all ethics laws and regulations," Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement to Newsweek. "Any insinuations or claims otherwise are ridiculous slander."
...
Parnell said the Department of Defense "maintains a rigorous, multilayered ethics framework that includes financial disclosure reviews, divestitures where appropriate, and screening to prevent conflicts of interest."
"Where required, robust administrative firewalls are established and enforced to ensure senior leaders are completely screened from matters involving former employers or private interests," Parnell said.
A spokesperson for the Pentagon did not respond to a request for a direct contact for Jennifer Hegseth. A spokesman for Watchtower told Newsweek Mrs. Hegseth "has not interfaced with any clients nor does she provide any advice to Watchtower on defense matters."
Hegseth has found himself firmly in the spotlight as Democrats—and increasingly, some outspoken Republicans—have been rattled by the tales of chaos spilling out from the Pentagon, the fallout of the drawn-out war with Iran and concerns over whether Hegseth's hacking away at the U.S. military's top ranks has harmed its effectiveness.
After the resounding Republican defeat in Tuesday's midterms, largely seen as an indictment on the Iran war, President Donald Trump said he had received "calls" about Hegseth's political future, but he had "every intention to keep him" on at the helm of the Pentagon.
Hegseth, striking back at calls for him to be replaced in a defiant video message on Thursday, vowed to "not back down" and defended his stewardship of the Pentagon as "effective."
The Watchtower representative said Mrs. Hegseth had helped with "navigating conservative TV media" and the firm appreciated her assistance, and did not address whether she still worked on behalf of Watchtower.
"It should be no surprise that a public affairs firm would want to work with one of the biggest former star producers at Fox News, the nation’s preeminent conservative news outlet," the Watchtower spokesman said.
Who Is Jennifer Hegseth?
Jennifer, a former longtime Fox News producer, married Pete Hegseth at Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey in 2019.
The Defense Secretary himself was a presenter on the network before joining the Trump administration in January 2025. Jennifer is his third wife.
Throughout Hegseth's time remolding the Pentagon to adhere to what he terms a "warrior" ethos, his wife has occupied a prominent position at his side.
Parnell described Mrs. Hegseth, whose late father reportedly worked as a Lockheed Martin executive, as an "accomplished leader in her own right and a devoted military spouse," who was a "vital asset" to the department.
The Pentagon "not only welcomes her current leadership but actively plans to involve her even more deeply in the future," he said in a statement provided to The New York Times.
In August 2026, Mrs. Hegseth was unveiled as the chair of Trump's Military Spouse Commission, a voluntary position advising the president on issues involving military families.
She is reported to have prepared her husband for media appearances, been present in his interviews with reporters and helped with interviewing candidates for jobs on Hegseth's staff.
In early 2025, she was reported by The Wall Street Journal to have sat in on a meeting between her husband and senior British officials at the Pentagon shortly after Washington briefly halted intelligence sharing with Ukraine.
During the meeting, the British delegation said U.K. officers in the country would be at risk without U.S. intelligence flows, The New York Times later reported. The officials kept the details vague because of Mrs. Hegseth's presence and later convened a separate meeting without her present, an unnamed Trump administration official told the newspaper.
The Pentagon said Mrs. Hegseth had stayed only for introductory greetings and was not present for discussions of classified material.
The report came shortly after a journalist was mistakenly added to a chat involving Hegseth and other top national security officials, in which they discussed plans for, and the execution of, American strikes on Yemen-based Houthi rebels.
It later emerged Mrs. Hegseth was a member of a separate Signal chat, in which Hegseth shared details about U.S. attacks on Yemen, along with the Defense Secretary's brother and personal lawyer.
Delaware Democrat, Senator Chris Coons, said in March 2025 Mrs. Hegseth's involvement in Pentagon affairs was "not normal," adding in an interview with MSNBC: "Secretary Hegseth has one of the highest levels of classification access. He can’t just hand that to his wife and say, 'Here, honey, hold my beer, and hold my classified information.'"
Hegseth said he did not send war plans via Signal and denied sharing classified information. An investigation by the Pentagon's inspector general found Hegseth shared information on Signal that matched details listed in a U.S. military email marked as secret and not releasable to foreign nationals.
The classification of secret means if the information was released without authorization, it could be expected to "cause serious damage" to U.S. national security.
The Pentagon probe concluded Hegseth had shared "sensitive, nonpublic, operational information he determined did not require classification over the Signal chat on his personal cellphone."
But Hegseth's sharing of nonpublic information about U.S. operations over Signal on his personal cellphone, hours before the planned strikes, "exposed sensitive DoD [Department of Defense] information" and risked U.S. personnel and mission goals, the investigators said.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Tobias Meyjes and Trevor Davies
View 0 Comments
Submit Correction
View Editorial & AI Guidelines