50 people in the Pentagon have been required to take lie detector tests regarding information leaks.
Posted by The Daily Beast Podcast, Checked
- Sources
- 7 support1 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 80%
The Daily Beast PodcastSep 8, 2026
Multiple outlets report, citing The New York Times and CBS News, that about 50 Joint Staff personnel at the Pentagon were required to take polygraph tests in August 2026 as part of a leak investigation. The claim matches that reporting as of the 2026-09-08 post date, with the sources treating the Joint Staff as part of the Pentagon.
This claim is about the present, so it is judged as of the day it was checked.
What was said
… about Pete Hegler, there is a man called Push up Pete, who's purging the fighting elite, replacing real heroes with boot licking zeros, as ethics get tossed to the street. Thought that was rather suitable for the Pentagon under Pete. And, of course, headline today that 50 people in the Pentagon have been required to take lie detector tests to see if they are the ones that have been leaking information, that, ah, the Pentagon is running out of munitions, that they've been spreading word about Pete Hegseth's lack of competence. And, yeah, go on. …
The Daily Beast Podcast · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. Al Jazeera, Dawn, Malay Mail and Yahoo all report that about 50 members of the military's Joint Staff were subjected to polygraph tests over media leaks, citing the New York Times.[2][3][4][5]
Supports. The Independent reports that roughly 50 military officers and civilian employees on the Joint Staff were given polygraph tests in August 2026 as part of an inquiry into press leaks.[6]
Supports. Raw Story reports that the Pentagon forced dozens, about 50, of Joint Staff members to take polygraph tests as it hunted leakers, and a Reuters report on a later criminal referral confirms the Pentagon's leak crackdown under Hegseth.[1][7]
Context. The sources note the Joint Staff is a Pentagon body of roughly 1,500 to 2,000 officers and officials, and the polygraphs were aimed at leaks about munitions stockpiles. The Pentagon declined to comment on specifics.[1][3]
Context. Most outlets trace the 50-person figure to a single New York Times report, so independent corroboration of the exact count is limited, though CBS News also reported wide-scale polygraph use.[3][8]
Sources
8 sources: 1 tier 3, 7 not rated
- 1Pentagon straps its own staff to lie detectors after wave of damning leaksrawstory.com · tier 3 · cited for: supports, context
- 2Pentagon polygraphs dozens of US military staff over ...aljazeera.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 3Top US military officials face lie detectors in leak huntdawn.com · not rated · cited for: supports, context
- 4Pentagon puts 50 top military staff through lie detectors in hunt for weapons leakmalaymail.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 5Pentagon forces staff to take lie detector tests over Iran war leaksyahoo.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 6Pentagon continues to rely on the pseudoscience of lie detector tests to hunt leakersthe-independent.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 7General fired by Hegseth referred for criminal prosecution, Pentagon saysrmb.reuters.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 8Why has the Trump administration ordered staff to take polygraph tests?uk.news.yahoo.com · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
Related claims
- Fifty people at the Department of Defense are being subjected to lie-detector tests due to the Secretary of Defense's frustration over leaks.Mixed
- Dozens of officials at the Pentagon are being subjected to lie-detector tests.True
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- The Pentagon press corps has been kicked out of the Pentagon building.True