Colin Carroll on His Pentagon Firing and Politico Investigation

The Politico Call

• 📞 Colin Carroll recounts receiving a call from a Politico reporter, Dan Lipman, shortly after his earlier firing from the Pentagon.
• 💬 Carroll initially gave a comment via his public affairs office, as was permissible, but later texted a more detailed comment to the reporter.
• ❓ The reporter's call was unexpected, and Carroll's immediate question was whether the reporter was calling to apologize for a previous "hit piece."

Allegations of Orchestration

• 🎭 Joe Casper, the Chief of Staff, alleged that Carroll orchestrated the call from Dan Lipman to prompt an investigation into him.
• 📄 Carroll read in a subsequent report that Joe Casper provided multiple, conflicting accounts of how the call occurred.
• 📧 Carroll maintains he only texted Dan Lipman after getting home, and then followed instructions from public affairs to send a note to Sean Parnell.

Pentagon Leaks and Investigations

• 📅 The timeline shows multiple leaks to the press in early March 2023, concerning sensitive Pentagon information.
• 🕵️‍♂️ An investigation into these leaks was initiated by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (OSI), not the Inspector General.
• ❌ Carroll states that the OSI investigators told him they were not involved in the HR actions (placing him and others on leave/firing them) that occurred the previous week.

Termination and Defense

• 🚶‍♂️ Carroll describes being escorted out of the Pentagon by two older gentlemen, who informed him he was placed on leave.
• ✉️ He spent days trying to get OSI to contact him, eventually signing an NDA after they came to his house.
• 🚫 Carroll maintains he did not leak any classified or unclassified information and believes his colleagues, Dan Caldwell and Darren, also did not leak.
• ❓ He questions the evidence the Secretary of Defense claimed to have, as OSI stated they had not been handed any evidence when they began their investigation.