After West Point appeared to either lie to Pro Publica or failed to do due diligence in searching its records regarding the question of Trump Secretary of Defense nominee was accepted to the military academy but didn’t attend, which is true but the academy claimed was false, Senator Tom Cotton fired off an angry letter to the academy demanding answers as to what happened.
In the letter, which was addressed to Lieutenant General Steven W. Gilland, the Superintendent of the United States Military Academy, Sen. Cotton noted how concerning it is that the academy provided, whether out of gross negligence or lies, totally incorrect evidence to a news outlet about a political nominee. He also demanded the Lt. Gen. describe what failures led to that false claim from the once-trusted academy.
Beginning the letter to Lt. Gen. Gilland, Sen. Cotton described the attempted article as a political “hit piece” in which the academy participated, saying, “I’m concerned about reports that a U.S. Military Academy official has provided false information to a left-wing reporter writing a derogatory hit piece about Pete Hegseth, the nominee for Secretary of Defense.”
Continuing, Sen. Cotton noted that Hegseth had been accepted to the academy, saying, “I understand that a civilian public-affairs officer, Theresa Brinkerhoff, informed a reporter that Mr. Hegseth didn’t apply to West Point, as he has said publicly in the past. This statement is incorrect; not only did Mr. Hegseth apply, but he was also accepted to the West Point Class of 2003.”