By TARA COPP, Related Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth’s youthful brother is serving in a key place contained in the Pentagon as a Division of Homeland Safety liaison and senior adviser, Hegseth’s workplace confirmed.
The high-profile job has meant conferences with a UFC combating champion, a visit to Guantanamo Bay and, proper now, touring on the Pentagon’s 747 plane as Hegseth makes his first journey as protection secretary to the Indo-Pacific.
Phil Hegseth’s official title is senior adviser to the secretary for the Division of Homeland Safety and liaison officer to the Protection Division, spokeswoman Kingsley Wilson mentioned in a press release 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 incorporates stops in Hawaii, Guam, the Philippines and Japan, Wilson mentioned in response to a question by The Related Press.
Border safety, the duty of DHS, has been highlighted as one of many prime priorities for President Donald Trump, and hundreds of U.S. troops have been deployed to the border to help DHS with curbing unlawful immigration.
Liaison roles are widespread
It’s widespread for the Protection Division and different federal companies to have liaisons. Every navy department sends liaisons to Capitol Hill. The Pentagon, State Division and others all use interagency liaisons to extra carefully coordinate and hold tabs on coverage.
However it isn’t widespread for these senior-level positions to be crammed by relations of the Cupboard heads, mentioned Michael Fallings, a managing associate at Tully Rinckey PLLC, which focuses on federal employment legislation.
Jennifer Rauchet, third from left, and Phil Hegseth, fifth from left, pay attention as Pete Hegseth seems earlier than the Senate Armed Companies Committee for his affirmation listening to to be Protection Secretary, on the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP Picture/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
Primarily based on Phil Hegseth’s publicly obtainable resume, his previous expertise contains founding his personal podcast manufacturing firm, Embassy and Third, and dealing on social media and podcasts at The Hudson Institute.
It’s not the primary time Phil Hegseth has labored alongside his older brother. When Pete Hegseth was CEO of Involved Veterans for America, a nonprofit that fell into monetary issue throughout his time there, he paid his brother $108,000 to do media relations for the group, in response to federal tax information.
In a press release, the Division of Homeland Safety confirmed Phil Hegseth’s job title and mentioned this “interagency mission is part of Mr. Hegseth’s preview,” presumably that means “purview.”
DHS mentioned Phil Hegseth, whereas on the Indo-Pacific journey, has been assembly with representatives from Homeland Safety Investigations, the legislation enforcement arm of the division, “and other DHS components and interagency partners.”
The Pentagon didn’t reply to a request to interview Phil Hegseth. Neither the Pentagon nor the Division of Homeland Safety has responded to queries about his {qualifications} for the job..
A detailed ally to the secretary
He has been his brother’s shut ally, showing alongside him all through his fraught affirmation course of within the Senate. In pictures, as Pete Hegseth walked the halls of Congress, Phil Hegseth is commonly proper there by his aspect.
He now has places of work simply down the corridor from him alongside the Pentagon’s E-Ring, in response to a U.S. official aware of the workplace location, who spoke on the situation of anonymity to debate delicate issues.
U.S. Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth holds a joint press convention with and Philippine Secretary of Protection Gilberto Teodoro on the Armed Forces of the Philippines Headquarters in Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon Metropolis, Philippines, Friday, March 28, 2025. (AP Picture/Gerard Carreon)
Images posted by the protection secretary’s official Flickr account present Phil Hegseth on the secretary’s desk as he met with officers or high-profile company, together with Final Preventing Championship champion Conor McGregor this month.
He traveled to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, with Pete Hegseth in February.
Nepotism legal guidelines information authorities hiring
A 1967 federal nepotism legislation prohibits authorities officers from hiring, selling or recommending kinfolk to any civilian place over which they train management.
A picture of an workplace organizational chart obtained by The Related Press reveals Phil Hegseth in a small group of officers instantly beneath his brother, with Phil Hegseth labeled as a senior adviser to the protection secretary.
Additional evaluate of Phil Hegseth’s hiring could be wanted to find out if it ran afoul of federal nepotism legal guidelines, “but it does not pass the smell test,” Fallings mentioned.
Nonetheless, if he’s 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 didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon whether or not it wholly employs Phil Hegseth, whether or not he’s paid and in that case at what federal pay stage.
There are additionally some exceptions to the nepotism legislation for the president’s workplace. In his first time period, Trump appointed his son-in-law Jared Kushner to function his senior adviser. When he was president, Invoice Clinton named first girl Hillary Clinton to serve on his well being care process power.
Within the Biden administration, Jake Sullivan served as nationwide safety adviser to the president whereas his brother, Tom Sullivan, was the counselor of the State Division.
