Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s pet project with Elon Musk and Newt Gingrich has been accused of turning the Pentagon into a playground for defense industry profiteers.
Government watchdog groups have filed a lawsuit claiming Hegseth’s “Project Meridian”—an advisory committee he has tasked with identifying the military’s future weapons and technology needs—is violating federal law.
The lawsuit lands at an especially precarious moment for the Fox host-turned-defense secretary, who is simultaneously scrambling to convince President Donald Trump to keep him in the job while facing impeachment efforts in Congress.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is being floated as President Donald Trump’s scapegoat for the Iran war debacle.
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The complaint alleges that Hegseth’s project flouted several Federal Advisory Committee Act requirements, which are intended to prevent conflicts of interest while ensuring transparency, a balanced representation of viewpoints, and opportunities for public input.
The watchdogs argue that Project Meridian presents major conflicts of interest concerns because Hegseth has packed the committee with members who have financial stakes in the defense industry and stand to benefit from the recommendations they are tasked with making.
The committee is led by Gingrich, Musk, and defense technology entrepreneur Palmer Luckey.
Hegseth chose two billionaires with stakes in the defense industry to lead the Pentagon’s study on the future of warfare.
The watchdogs cited Musk and Luckey’s substantial government business, noting SpaceX has roughly $8 billion in defense contracts, while Luckey’s Anduril Industries has around $25 billion.
“Stacking Project Meridian with industry leaders will further skew national security policy toward corporate priorities, and away from the public interest,” one of the plaintiffs, the Project on Government Oversight, wrote in a statement.
Meanwhile, the lawsuit argues that the committee members without financial interests “do not provide fair balance,” noting that Gingrich, 83, was the former Republican leader in the House and remains a close ally of Trump, who appointed Gingrich’s wife as U.S. ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein last year.
“Given everything I believe in, a large part of me thinks I should have gone over,” Gingrich said in a 1980s interview, reflecting on his decision not to serve in Vietnam. But he explained: “Part of the question I had to ask myself was what difference I would have made.”
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Gingrich is a curious choice for a committee tasked with studying the future of warfare, given that he avoided serving in the Vietnam War. He took deferments as a student—graduating from Emory University in 1965, and then Tulane in 1968 and 1971 with graduate degrees—while his status as a father pushed him further down the line for the draft. His wife at the time was his former high school math teacher, Jackie Battley, whom he later cheated on and divorced.
The lawsuit further alleges that Hegseth’s project violated the Federal Advisory Committee Act by failing to publish a Federal Register notice to allow public review and comment, and by failing to consult the General Services Administration on whether the project served the public interest.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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