The academy had falsely said that Hegseth did not even apply to the school.
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 news outlets in a statement.
“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.
