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Fellow National Guardsman told superiors Hegseth might be “insider threat” before Biden inauguration
A man who in 2021 was a member of the same National Guard unit as Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be defense secretary, confirmed he sent a letter to his superiors warning that a tattoo Hegseth bears indicated that he was a potential “insider threat” ahead of President Biden’s inauguration.
The Associated Press reported that 12 U.S. National Guard members were removed from helping to secure Mr. Biden’s 2021 inauguration after vetting by the U.S. military and FBI. They were found to have made extremist statements in posts or text messages or had ties with right-wing militia groups. In an interview with podcaster Shawn Ryan, Hegseth said he was one of the National Guard members removed from securing the inauguration.
“I was deemed an extremist because of a tattoo by my National Guard unit in Washington, D.C., and my orders were revoked to guard the Biden inauguration… a Jerusalem cross tattoo which is just a Christian symbol,” he told Ryan.
But that’s not the tattoo that his fellow guardsman, DeRicko Gaither, pointed out to his superiors. He told CBS News, “When I looked at the pictures – in one he had the tattoo of the Jerusalem Cross, which I didn’t think was a problem.”
“The next photo he had on his inner bicep he had a bicep that said ‘Deux Vult,'” Gaither said. “I looked it up, and that tattoo had ties to extremist groups. So, I sent to my leadership. I included the photo attachment and the Army policy about tattoos. I said I just want you to know what’s going on. I received a response saying Pete had been removed from the mission.”
He said in his letter, which CBS News obtained, “White-Supremacist use of #Deus Vult and a return to medieval Catholicism, is to invoke the myth of a white Christian (i.e. Catholic) medieval past that wishes to ignore the actual demographics and theological state of Catholicism today.”
He added, “Deus Vult has enjoyed popularity with members of the alt-right because of its perceived representation of the clash of civilizations between the Christian west and the Islamic world.”
Citing a military statute that bans extremist tattoos, Gaither said the Deus Vult tattoo “falls along the line of Insider Threat.” The Associated Press and Reuters first reported on Gaither’s warning letter to the National Guard.
“Deus Vult” is the Christian motto that refers to divine providence. It originated as the rallying cry of the Crusaders. But experts in domestic violent extremism say the latin phrase has also been co-opted by some members of the far right in recent years.
For example, Mauricio Martinez Garcia, the gunman behind the 2023 mass shooting in Allen, Texas, had a “Deus Vult” tattoo, according to the Anti-Defamation League, in addition to neo-Nazi tattoos. The group also says the phrase is “commonly used as an anti-Muslim symbol.”
The Trump transition team has not responded to a request for comment. Vice President-elect JD Vance said on X of the AP’s story, “They’re attacking Pete Hegseth for having a Christian motto tattooed on his arm. This is disgusting anti-Christian bigotry.” Hegseth reshared Vance’s post and commented, “They can target me — I don’t give a damn — but this type of targeting of Christians, conservatives, patriots and everyday Americans will stop on DAY ONE at DJT’s DoD.”
The National Guard declined to comment on whether Hegseth had been removed from the detail or why, and issued a statement that just said, “Maj. Peter Hegseth joined the D.C. Army National Guard on June 6, 2019, and remained a member of the DCNG until March 31, 2021. He was in an M-Day, traditional drilling service member, status and available for duty if required during the presidential inauguration of 2021.”
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The U.S. received written assurance from Iran before the presidential election that its leadership was not actively trying to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump, CBS News confirmed, according to a source with direct knowledge of the correspondence. The message arrived after the White House in September affirmed that killing a former U.S. president or former U.S. official would be seen by the Biden administration as an act of war.
“We consider this a national and homeland security matter of the highest priority, and we strongly condemn Iran for these brazen threats,” National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said in a statement in September.
Iran said in its message, which was conveyed by a third party, that it understood this premise. The Wall Street Journal first reported Iran’s message to the U.S.
The Justice Department is currently prosecuting at least two individuals alleged to have been part of murder-for-hire plots to kill Trump while he was still a candidate. One operative working for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps told federal investigators that he was tasked in September with “surveilling, and, ultimately, assassinating” Trump, according to court records unsealed last week.
Prosecutors said Farhad Shakeri, who is believed to be residing in Iran, told investigators in a phone interview that unnamed IRGC officials pushed him to plan an attack against Trump to take place in October. If the plan could not come together in time, the Iranian officials directed Shakeri to delay the plot until after the election because the official “assessed that [Trump] would lose the election,” the charging documents said.
In early August, a Pakistani national with alleged ties to Iran was arrested and charged with plotting a murder-for-hire scheme targeting U.S. government officials and politicians, according to charging documents unsealed Tuesday.
A U.S. official pointed out that Iran did not task its most effective proxy force, Hezbollah, with carrying out these plots. This official described Iran’s approach to date as “nice if it works. If it doesn’t, then it’s not a problem.”
In response to inquiries suggesting that “Iran told U.S. it wouldn’t try to kill Trump”, the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran said it would not comment on official messages between two countries.
The mission said in a statement, “The Islamic Republic of Iran has long declared its commitment to pursuing Martyr Soleimani’s assassination through legal and judicial avenues, while adhering fully to the recognized principles of international law.”
Trump has raised the ire of Iranians for a few reasons. He exited the international Iran nuclear agreement, which had lifted some sanctions in exchange for restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program. He also directed the 2020 airstrike that killed top Iranian commander Gen. Qasem Soleimani. Since then, some Trump administration officials and military officials received threats from the regime, among them, Robert O’Brien, who was national security adviser during the strike. His predecessor in the job, John Bolton, who was part of the maximum pressure campaign that exerted sanctions pressure on Tehran, has also received threats.
In 2022, the U.S. intelligence community assessed that Iran would threaten Americans — both directly and via proxy attacks — and was committed to developing networks inside the U.S. Two persistent threat assessments submitted to Congress by the State Department in January 2022 cited a “serious and credible threat” to the lives of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Trump administration Iran envoy Brian Hook. The non-public assessments showed that throughout 2021 and again in 2022, the State Department determined that round-the-clock, U.S.-taxpayer-funded diplomatic security details were needed to protect both men. That continues today.
Multiple former officials have spoken to CBS about duty-to-warn notices that they have recently received from the FBI and other agencies regarding the ongoing threat from Iran and Iranian-hired actors, implying the U.S. is taking the threat seriously and not taking the Iranian regime’s assurances at face value.
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