West Point Apologizes, Confirms It Accepted Trump Nominee Pete Hegseth to the Academy

President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to be Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and his wife, Jennifer Rauchet (L), walk through the Hart Senate Office building in Washington on Dec. 11, 2024. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The U.S. Military Academy has apologized for falsely saying President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Pentagon, Peter Hegseth, was never accepted into the school, known as West Point.

“A review of our records indicates Peter Hegseth was offered admission to West Point in 1999 but did not attend. An incorrect statement involving Hegseth’s admission to the U.S. Military Academy was released by an employee on Dec. 10, 2024,” a spokesperson for West Point told The Epoch Times in an email.

“Upon further review of an archived database, employees realized this statement was in error. Hegseth was offered acceptance to West Point as a prospective member of the Class of 2003. The academy takes this situation seriously and apologizes for this administrative error.”

The statement came after Hegseth on Dec. 11 shared his letter of acceptance, dated Jan. 5, 1999, on the social media platform X.

Hegseth said he had come to learn that ProPublica was planning to publish an article alleging he had not been accepted by West Point.

ProPublica editor Jesse Eisinger said in response that two spokespersons for West Point told ProPublica that Hegseth had not been admitted. One said he did not even apply for admission. That prompted ProPublica to go to Hegseth.

“The first rule of good journalism is: No Surprises. You must give the subject of a potential story a fair chance to respond to all of the salient facts in the story,” Eisinger wrote.

In a Dec. 10 email to Hegseth’s attorney Timothy Parlatore, a reporter from ProPublica wrote, “We’re preparing a story about Mr. Hegseth’s claims that he was admitted to West Point” and that “the school told us that is not true.”

“Why did Mr. Hegseth say he got in to West Point when that is not true? How can Mr. Hegseth be Secretary of Defense given that he has made false statements about getting in to the military’s most prestigious academy?” the reporter wrote in the email, which was reviewed by The Epoch Times.

The reporter gave Parlatore one hour to respond.

ProPublica ended up not publishing any stories about the matter.

“Reporters do their job by asking tough questions to people in power, which is exactly what happened here,“ a spokesperson for ProPublica told The Epoch Times in an email. ”Responsible news organizations only publish what they can verify, which is why we didn’t publish a story once Mr. Hegseth provided documentation that corrected the statements from West Point.”

Senator, Lawyer Question West Point

Parlatore in a letter to Lt. Gen. Steven W. Gilland, West Point’s superintendent, attached an email from a West Point spokesperson to ProPublica stating that Hegseth had not applied for admission to West Point.

The spokesperson, Theresa Brinkerhoff, may have violated a federal law that prohibits the disclosure of certain information, Parlatore said.

“In light of these concerns, I urge you to investigate this matter thoroughly and take appropriate corrective action to prevent future violations,” he wrote.

West Point declined to answer questions about Brinkerhoff.

Brinkerhoff, who did not return an inquiry, was also named in a letter from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) to Gilland.

“Officials at the U.S. Military Academy should not be feeding lies to left-wing reporters about President Trump’s nominees,” Cotton said. “West Point needs to thoroughly investigate this egregiously bad judgement and potential violation of the Privacy Act immediately.”