U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said he wants a “ruthless, no-excuses review” of the assorted legal support functions and operations of the U.S. Department of Defense, referred to as the U.S. Department of War by the Trump administration.
In a video on social media, Hegseth said despite progress related to the priorities of restoring the “warrior ethos,” rebuilding the military, and re-establishing deterrence, the department’s legal support is in need of a “hard reset.”
“For too long — over 20 years — legal shops across the services have grown bloated, duplicative, they’ve muddied lines of authority and pulled critical judge advocates away from what matters most: advising commanders in the fight, on operations [and] in deployed environments where seconds and minutes count,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth said the United States will not be able to meet challenges posed by the country’s adversaries unless commanders receive sound legal advice.
“In a great power competition, or with any threat that we face, commanders need agile, independent, dead-on legal advice that enables decisive action, not endless process or turf wars,” Hegseth said.
He called for judge advocates general to focus on several aspects of warfighting, including military justice, operational law, the law of armed conflict, deployed contracting, intelligence law, and cyberspace.
“Everything that sharpens the edge in large-scale combat,” Hegseth said.
To that end, Hegseth directed the service secretaries to address cutting duplication and bureaucracy, clarifying legal roles and reporting without moral ambiguity, aligning functions so military legal support remains “laser-focused” on warfighting and readiness, and letting civilian lawyers handle nonoperational assignments such as acquisitions, civilian personnel, intellectual property, real estate, military installation environmental concerns and litigation outside of military channels.
“We laid out our recommended split — military matters to JAGs [and staff judge advocates], civilian to [general counsels] — with room for limited shared areas like standards of conduct or [Freedom of Information Act and] privacy if it makes sense for the services. But the priority is maximum support to the warfighter,” Hegseth emphasized.
The review would apply to active service components as well as to the reserve and National Guard components, officials said.
“Are we using reserve, civilian talent smartly? Is [the National] Guard’s legal education prepping folks for the full spectrum of operations? Everything gets measured against one standard: does it make us more lethal in competition, in crisis or in combat?” Hegseth said.
Reports about the general counsel are due in 45 days and should delineate functions, component distribution and education, as well as recommendations to reduce redundancy. Approved recommendations should be done within six months of the report, he said.