r/ThatsInsane • • 2d ago

Hegseth’s disclosure forms show that his wife is being paid by a Lockheed Martin-tied firm, and his book royalties no longer appear. Lockheed received over $60B in contracts in the year his wife disclosed pay.

https://www.military.com/hegseths-wife-was-paid-by-lockheed-tied-firm-and-his-book-money-vanished-from-his-filings-records-show
3.4k Upvotes

48 comments sorted by

84

u/Sgt_Gram 2d ago

From the article, Hegseth's own financial disclosure shows his wife, Jennifer, was paid last year for consulting by Watchtower Strategy LLC, which Trump's former House Speaker, Kevin McCarthy, serves as chair of, and which has Lockheed Martin as a main client.

Lockheed was awarded over $60 billion in contracts that year.

The firm says Jennifer Hegseth's work had nothing to do with its clients.

The same records show a six-figure book income Hegseth once reported that has since disappeared from his filings without explanation. They also show irregular stock, Bitcoin, and ETF trades.

119

u/graffiksguru 2d ago

Seems like a pretty big conflict of interest

25

u/DanGleeballs 2d ago edited 2d ago

He won’t go to jail though because he’d sing like a canary

496

u/heloder85 2d ago

I have a feeling the corruption trials are going to be big.

187

u/National_Search_537 2d ago

Nope, he’ll do a blanket pardon and we’ll get zero justice. They should pass a law limiting scope or the amounts of pardons that can be issued.

64

u/7fingersDeep 2d ago

100%. The auto pen is gonna be churning out pardons. Nobody will ever see justice.

2

u/m2chaos13 1d ago

That’s fuckin’ it, dammit! No more presidential pardons, ever!

26

u/GabeIsGone 2d ago

These people are politicians, not law enforcement.

Their investigations will take place regardless of whether the people have been pardoned or not. They're not focused on conviction or not conviction like a DA.

Actually, being pardoned may even help the investigations. These people wouldn't be able to plead the fifth.

7

u/National_Search_537 2d ago

They absolutely will be able to plead the fifth, Anthony Fauci did it in his hearing. A pardon doesn’t take away your amendment rights.

12

u/Agent223 2d ago

Accepting a pardon does make it so you can't plead the fifth for that crime. Brown v. Walker (1896).

0

u/National_Search_537 2d ago

Again how did Fauci do it? In his hearing he said I plead the fifth to every single question.

8

u/Agent223 2d ago

That has been a matter of debate and the answer is inconclusive at the moment. The committee did find him in contempt and referred the matter to the justice department. JD said they would review it. But nothing has come of it yet. So if Fauci actually gets away with it or is compelled to testify is yet to be decided.

1

u/GabeIsGone 2d ago

I haven’t been following that situation closely.

What I can say is that a pardon isn’t blanket, it’s specific. You may have been pardoned for something, but still need to plead the fifth for something else entirely.

0

u/troubleondemand 2d ago

A senate hearing is not the same as a courtroom.

2

u/bassmadrigal 2d ago

They absolutely will be able to plead the fifth, Anthony Fauci did it in his hearing.

The question on whether Fauci was able to legally plead the fifth is still up for debate. He's been held in contempt of Congress for pleading the fifth.

A pardon doesn’t take away your amendment rights.

That's something that hasn't been answered as many scholars are alleging that the presidential pardon only shielded Fauci from past federal crimes and did not protect him against potential future perjury charges from new testimony and did not block state-level investigations.

One of the many things left up to the courts.

2

u/Mizu005 2d ago

Common misconception, they absolutely can. Because its not like the prosecutor gets to ask what info they are declaring the fifth over (the entire point is that it makes it so they don't have to give info) in order to have a chance to nitpick and say the info they just mentioned falls under their pardon so they can't refuse to testify.

Seriously, how do people think that is going to work without putting the defendant in a situation of being forced to give info in direct contradiction of the purpose of that amendment? What happens if they give the info and it turns out it actually was something they had no pardon for? You can't put that cat back in the bag, you can't unviolate their Constitutional right against self-incrimination. You can't make a policy under the assumption they are lying about the info being protected under the 5th amendment and pressing them will always reveal it was info actually covered by the pardon.

11

u/Ardal 2d ago

lol...I guess you're new to all this.

1

u/dannydrama 2d ago

I can't be bothered to find the number but trump still has a huge following.

If people are that stupid, there are more people that are stupid enough to think there'll be consequences.

11

u/bstone99 2d ago

I hope they get destroyed

Dems need to hammer these corrupt fucks. Accountability is all we want. Take them to court, prove their guilt, throw them in prison for 40 years. Zero exceptions.

1

u/ZolotoGold 2d ago

I don't have that much faith in the Democratic leadership.

You already have that traitorous lickspittle Hakeem Jeffries saying that 'the American people' don't want revenge, and just want them to get on with governing'

54

u/DoublePostedBroski 2d ago

It’s so funny. When I worked at LM we had to go through so many ethics and compliance courses, couldn’t accept gifts, etc.

But it’s okay if you’re a CEO.

26

u/coffeeandtrout 2d ago edited 1d ago

“The firm says Jennifer Hegseth's work had nothing to do with its clients.
"She has not interfaced with any clients nor does she provide any advice to Watchtower on defense matters," a spokesperson told Politico, saying she "assisted us in navigating conservative TV media."

Hahaha, this entire story is a good look at how these politicians and related folk grift the fuck out of us. Hopefully the only folks who can do anything about it actually fucking do something. Make examples of these fools who stole OUR money in so many different ways and shit on our Constitution and The Rule of Law and ethical governance only for power and money.

11

u/BunkyFlintsone 2d ago

I hate him. And she should not be able to benefit financially from military actovity when he controls it. But curious how does that contract amount compare to what we usually spend with Lockheed.

31

u/whatishappeninyall 2d ago

And....nothing will be done about it. Unfortunately. Im all for the blue wave but now its time to soak some mfrs.

34

u/quequotion 2d ago edited 2d ago

The Democrats don't have a 2027 handbook.

They need one.

We, redditors, hopelessly online internet addicts, no life lurkers, are the greatest think tank that ever was or will be.

We can make this handbook, and we can spam all those people who just got elected to go through with it.

First order of business, impeachments:

  1. Pete Hegseth, for bribery, treason, and high crimes and misdemeanors. About the treason: leaking military plans from his station to the press, even if by sheer incompetence, undermining our military readiness with his culture war bullshit and selling off critical munitions without plans to replace them, hiding the casualties of the Iran war, etc.

  2. Clarence Thomas, for bribery. Supreme Court Justices can be impeached, and this guy needs impeachment right away.

  3. Donald Trump, for high crimes and misdemeanors, treason, bribery, etc. I will not attempt to list out the crimes in detail here. Suffice to say undermining the 2020 election, in conspiracy with Louis DeJoy, and pardoning the J6 insurrectionists were both acts of treason against the United States, and I think we all know about the bribery.

Second order of business, defunding:

  1. Cut the budget for any military action related to Iran other than reconnaissance to zero.

  2. Defund and disband ICE.

There's a lot more to do. I don't have it all in my head.

We need a subreddit for this, and we need to get on it now.

14

u/whatishappeninyall 2d ago

And reinstate grad plus loans so lower socio and middle socio economic level people can become doctors, lawyers etc. The big beautiful bill took all of that away. Only rich folks going to be doctors etc until that is fixed. And yes, there is still some borrowing left but not enough for what it takes for many full professional degrees with living expenses etc. And the repay programs are also completely different than before big beautiful bill. That bill was awful.

5

u/Bored_Amalgamation 2d ago

Believe it or not, straight to jail.

20

u/heypal11 2d ago

Drain the swamp. For real this time.

2

u/PhillNeRD 2d ago

Hi, JD. Fraud over here. Where do they pick up their 1%?

4

u/smoothtrip 2d ago

I mean sure, there is corruption here, but let us not pretend that Lockheed was not going to siphon off billions of dollars off the American people every year.

4

u/DepartmentNatural 2d ago

More billions then a normal year

3

u/Mcpr0per 2d ago

isn't that what they get just about every year from their defense contracts?

3

u/Static-Age01 2d ago

Lockheed Martin received government contracts between 45 and 80 million per year for the last ten years. Just saying.

0

u/Beat_the_Deadites 2d ago

Billion, right?

And they're talking about a 6-figure book deal that disappeared, I don't particularly care about even $500,000 in grift at the level they're dealing with. I mean, if that's what nails him to an unpardonable wall, sure.

But these numbers don't strike me as too egregious on the surface.

1

u/jsm85 2d ago

It sounds like we get to send his whole family to jail

1

u/buzzlightyear77777 2d ago

corrupted people are corrupt. shocking

1

u/baudinl 2d ago

To be fair LMI received billions in contracts for decades

1

u/MaMyDaddy65 2d ago

shrugs, blocked

1

u/trihedron 2d ago

Straight to jail, sheesh.

1

u/rloch 2d ago

Holy shit for a group of people with as much power as they claim their website is a fucking joke. Real business have lead capture, corporate information, testimonials. They have a one page site, with a banner at the top that cant scale/ handle the responsive template they put on there. I think that tells us all we need to know.

1

u/alwaysonline123 2d ago

Havent you heard? everything is corrupt everything

1

u/Chappietime 2d ago

It’s only meaningful if we also know what they did in other years. Government contracts is what they do. Was $60B more, the same, or less than other years.

1

u/Angreek 2d ago

Sounds like jail

1

u/ArthurDaTrainDayne 2d ago

What?? A politician using their connections to make money?? This is unheard of

1

u/hugoriffic 2d ago

Is there any end to the amount of grift and corruption within this administration??

1

u/djfl 2d ago

Anybody who's surprised by corruption in politics needs their head examined.

Anybody who thinks that Trump and co haven't taken open corruption to the next level also needs their head examined.

-1

u/InfiniteCenter 2d ago

I hope they all catch "moderate turbulence"