Top Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot is set to become the latest high-profile Department of Defense staffer to leave, weeks after he was involved in a controversy over baseball hero Jackie Robinson.
Defense has suffered a few big-name departures this week, largely as part of an investigation into leaks following the Signal group chat fiasco.
Ullyot became infamous, however, as he attempted to defend the Pentagon after a DOD website deleted a page describing baseball and civil rights icon Jackie Robinson’s military service.
He announced his resignation on Wednesday, claiming his time at the Pentagon was never meant to be permanent.
‘I made clear to Secretary Hegseth before the inauguration that I was not interested in being number two to anyone in public affairs,’ he said in a statement to Politico.
‘Last month, as that time approached, the Secretary and I talked and could not come to an agreement on another good fit for me at DOD. So I informed him today that I will be leaving at the end of this week.’
DailyMail.com has reached out to the Pentagon for comment.
It’s unclear if Ullyot’s leaving had anything to do with the investigation, though he had made waves in his time at DOD.
Top Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot (pictured) became the latest high-profile Department of Defense staffer to leave, weeks after he was involved in a controversy over baseball hero Jackie Robinson
The Pentagon – ran by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth (pictured right) – has taken a few big-name departures this week , largely as part of an investigation into leaks following the Signal group chat fiasco
He signed off on Hegseth’s move to kick out liberal legacy media outlets from the Pentagon press offices to make room for conservative organizations during Hegseth’s first week as defense secretary.
By February, former Republican Congressional candidate Sean Parnell had taken over from Ullyot as chief spokesperson and he was moved to the background.
However, Ullyot’s defense of the deletion of a webpage detailing Robinson’s military service broke out of Washington and made his words discussed among sports fans nationwide.
That development came after pages honoring a black Medal of Honor winner and Japanese American service members were taken down – the Pentagon said that was a mistake – amid the department’s campaign to strip out content singling out the contributions by women and minority groups, which the Trump administration considers ‘DEI.’
The page on Robinson, the first African American to play in Major League Baseball, includes biographical information about his Army service during World War II.
When that page’s address was entered in mid-March, a message showed up saying it ‘might have been moved, renamed, or may be temporarily unavailable.’ The letters ‘dei’ were also automatically added to the URL.
Later that day, the page reappeared on the department´s site, and the Pentagon released a statement.
‘We are pleased by the rapid compliance across the Department with the directive removing DEI content from all platforms,’ Ullyot said.
Ullyot became infamous when he attempted to defend the Pentagon after a DOD website deleted a page describing baseball and civil rights icon Jackie Robinson’s (pictured) military service
‘In the rare cases that content is removed – either deliberately or by mistake – that is out of the clearly outlined scope of the directive, we instruct the components and they correct the content so it recognizes our heroes for their dedicated service alongside their fellow Americans, period.’
The page includes an anecdote about Robinson refusing to move to the back of an Army bus in 1944, prompting the driver to call military police. Robinson was court martialed but acquitted.
Before the page returned to the website, Ullyot had stood his ground multiple times in statements to ESPN reporter Jeff Passan.
‘Everyone at the Defense Department loves Jackie Robinson, as well as the Navajo Code Talkers, the Tuskegee airmen, the Marines at Iwo Jima and so many others – we salute them for their strong and in many cases heroic service to our country, full stop,’ Ullyot said.
‘We do not view or highlight them through the prism of immutable characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, or sex. We do so only by recognizing their patriotism and dedication to the warfighting mission like (every) other American who has worn the uniform.’
Ullyot’s statement referred to DEI as ‘Discriminatory Equity Ideology.’
‘It is a form of woke cultural Marxism that Divides the force, Erodes unit cohesion and Interferes with the services’ core warfighting mission,’ he said.
It comes amid a rough week for the Pentagon, which is finally seeing some fallout from the group chat scandal.
Top Defense aides Dan Caldwell (left) and Darin Selnick (right) were escorted out of the Pentagon on Tuesday after allegedly being identified during the leak investigation
Colin Carroll (right), chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary, has been suspended as part of a leak investigation
The internal Pentagon investigation is looking into allegations of unauthorized disclosures of information.
Darin Selnick, the Pentagon’s deputy chief of staff, and Dan Caldwell, a senior adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, was placed on administrative leave as part of the that probe.
Colin Carroll, chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg, was suspended a day later.
‘This is a purge of people who had disagreements with the Pentagon chief of staff,’ a defense source told CNN.
President Donald Trump has railed against leakers, particularly those leaking information about his administration. He has ordered them found.
Caldwell played a critical role as an adviser to Hegseth.
He was the staff member designated as Hegseth’s point person in the Signal messaging chat that top Trump administration national security officials, including the defense secretary, used to convey plans for a military strike against Houthi militants in Yemen.
The chat, set up by national security adviser Michael Waltz, included a number of Cabinet members and came to light because Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was accidentally added to the group.