Pentagon's new project Pete Hegseth called brazen self-operation in lawsuit

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Pete Hegseth’s latest idea is being accused of serving as a blatant money-making ploy for billionaires.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s pet project, along with Elon Musk and Newt Gingrich, has been accused of turning the Pentagon into a playground for defense industry profiteers.

Government watchdog groups have filed a lawsuit, claiming that Hegseth’s “Project Meridian” — an advisory committee he charged with identifying the military’s future military and technology needs — violates federal law.

The trial comes at a particularly precarious time for the Fox host turned defense secretary, who is simultaneously struggling to convince President Donald Trump to keep him in his job while facing impeachment efforts in Congress.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is being portrayed as President Donald Trump’s scapegoat for the Iran war debacle.

AARON SCHWARTZ/AFP via Getty Images

The complaint alleges that Hegseth’s project flouted several requirements of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which are intended to prevent conflicts of interest while ensuring transparency, balanced representation of viewpoints and opportunities for public participation.

Watchdogs argue that the Meridian project presents major conflict of interest problems because Hegseth has packed the committee with members who have financial interests in the defense industry and who could benefit from the recommendations they are charged with making.

The committee is led by Gingrich, Musk and defense technology entrepreneur Palmer Luckey.

Hegseth chose two billionaires with interests in the defense industry to lead the Pentagon’s study on the future of warfare.

Watchdogs cited Musk and Luckey’s extensive government activities, noting that SpaceX has about $8 billion in defense contracts, while Luckey’s Anduril Industries has about $25 billion.

“Bringing Project Meridian together with industry leaders will further shift national security policy toward corporate priorities and away from the public interest,” one of the plaintiffs, the Project on Government Oversight, wrote in a statement.

Meanwhile, the lawsuit argues that committee members without financial interests “do not provide a fair balance,” noting that Gingrich, 83, was the former House Republican leader and remains a close ally of Trump, who last year named Gingrich’s wife as U.S. ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

“Given everything I believe in, a big part of me thinks I should have gone,” Gingrich said in an interview in the 1980s, reflecting on his decision not to serve in Vietnam. But he explained: “Part of the question I had to ask myself was what difference I would have made. »

Kevin Dietsch/Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Gingrich is a curious choice for a committee studying the future of war, given that he avoided participating in the Vietnam War. He took deferments as a student — graduating from Emory University in 1965, then Tulane in 1968 and 1971 with graduate degrees — while his status as a father pushed him further into the draft. His wife at the time was his former high school math teacher, Jackie Battley, whom he later cheated on and divorced.

The lawsuit further alleges that Hegseth’s project violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act by failing to publish a Federal Register notice to allow for public review and comment, and by failing to consult with the General Services Administration regarding whether the project served the public interest.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.