Hegseth directs War Department to conduct 'ruthless, no-excuses' review of military legal offices

War Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday night that he has ordered a “ruthless” review of the United States' military's legal offices that seeks to cut duplication and bureaucracy and eliminate "moral ambiguity." 

Hegseth said the review will be conducted by military service secretaries through their general counsels, judge advocate generals and the staff judge advocate to the commandant.

“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 in deployed environments where seconds and minutes count,” Hegseth said in a video on X.

“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,” he continued. “They need JAGs focused on war fighting, military justice, operational law, law of armed conflict, deployed contracting, Intel law, cyberspace, you name it, everything that sharpens the edge in large scale combat.”  

Hegseth said civilian lawyers for the War Department will take on “non-operational stuff” including acquisitions, civilian personnel, intellectual property, real estate and litigation outside military channels. 

He also claimed there would be limited overlap between military and civilian legal departments and set a deadline of 45 days for reports on any cross-overs between the legal departments to the War Department’s General Counsel.