By TARA COPP, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s younger brother is serving in a key position inside the Pentagon as a Department of Homeland Security liaison and senior adviser, Hegseth’s office confirmed.
The high-profile job has meant meetings with a UFC fighting champion, a trip to Guantanamo Bay and, right now, traveling on the Pentagon’s 747 aircraft as Hegseth makes his first trip as defense secretary to the Indo-Pacific.
Phil Hegseth’s official title is senior adviser to the secretary for the Department of Homeland Security and liaison officer to the Defense Department, spokeswoman Kingsley Wilson said in a statement Thursday.
“Phil Hegseth, one of a number of talented DHS liaisons to DOD, is conducting touch points with U.S. Coast Guard officials on the Secretary’s Indo-Pacific trip,” which includes stops in Hawaii, Guam, the Philippines and Japan, Wilson said in response to a query by The Associated Press.
Border security, the responsibility of DHS, has been highlighted as one of the top priorities for President Donald Trump, and thousands of U.S. troops have been deployed to the border to assist DHS with curbing illegal immigration.
Liaison roles are common
It’s common for the Defense Department and other federal agencies to have liaisons. Each military branch sends liaisons to Capitol Hill. The Pentagon, State Department and others all use interagency liaisons to more closely coordinate and keep tabs on policy.
But it is not common for those senior-level positions to be filled by family members of the Cabinet heads, said Michael Fallings, a managing partner at Tully Rinckey PLLC, which specializes in federal employment law.
Based on Phil Hegseth’s publicly available resume, his past experience includes founding his own podcast production company, Embassy and Third, and working on social media and podcasts at The Hudson Institute.
It’s not the first time Phil Hegseth has worked alongside his older brother. When Pete Hegseth was CEO of Concerned Veterans for America, a nonprofit that fell into financial difficulty during his time there, he paid his brother $108,000 to do media relations for the organization, according to federal tax records.
In a statement, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed Phil Hegseth’s job title and said this “interagency mission is part of Mr. Hegseth’s preview,” presumably meaning “purview.”
DHS said Phil Hegseth, while on the Indo-Pacific trip, has been meeting with representatives from Homeland Security Investigations, the law enforcement arm of the department, “and other DHS components and interagency partners.”
The Pentagon did not respond to a request to interview Phil Hegseth. Neither the Pentagon nor the Department of Homeland Security has responded to queries about his qualifications for the job..
A close ally to the secretary
He has been his brother’s close ally, appearing alongside him throughout his fraught confirmation process in the Senate. In photos, as Pete Hegseth walked the halls of Congress, Phil Hegseth is often right there by his side.
He now has offices just down the hall from him along the Pentagon’s E-Ring, according to a U.S. official familiar with the office location, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Photos posted by the defense secretary’s official Flickr account show Phil Hegseth at the secretary’s table as he met with officials or high-profile guests, including Ultimate Fighting Championship champion Conor McGregor this month.
He traveled to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with Pete Hegseth in February.
Nepotism laws guide government hiring
A 1967 federal nepotism law prohibits government officials from hiring, promoting or recommending relatives to any civilian position over which they exercise control.
An image of an office organizational chart obtained by The Associated Press shows Phil Hegseth in a small group of officials directly beneath his brother, with Phil Hegseth labeled as a senior adviser to the defense secretary.
Further review of Phil Hegseth’s hiring would be needed to determine if it ran afoul of federal nepotism laws, “but it does not pass the smell test,” Fallings said.
However, if he is wholly employed by DHS, that “would avoid a nepotism violation, unless it can be shown that (Pete) Hegseth was involved in the hiring or had asserted his authority to help hire his brother.”
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether it wholly employs Phil Hegseth, whether he is paid and if so at what federal pay level.
There are also some exceptions to the nepotism law for the president’s office. In his first term, Trump appointed his son-in-law Jared Kushner to serve as his senior adviser. When he was president, Bill Clinton named first lady Hillary Clinton to serve on his health care task force.
In the Biden administration, Jake Sullivan served as national security adviser to the president while his brother, Tom Sullivan, was the counselor of the State Department.
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