Hegseth's expansive security requirements tax Army protective unit

The agency tasked with protecting Defense Department leaders is under significant strain, and the secretary’s atypical needs are becoming untenable, officials say.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s unusually large personal security requirements are straining the Army agency tasked with protecting him as it pulls agents from criminal investigations to safeguard family residences in Minnesota, Tennessee and D.C., according to numerous officials familiar with the operation.

The sprawling, multimillion-dollar initiative has forced the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, or CID, the agency that fields security for top Defense Department officials, to staff weeks-long assignments in each location and at times monitor residences belonging to the Hegseths’ former spouses, the officials said.

One CID official, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity citing a fear of reprisal, characterized Hegseth’s personal protective arrangement as unlike any other in the agency’s recent history.

“I’ve never seen this many security teams for one guy,” the official said. “Nobody has.”

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