FACT CHECK: Claim That Pete Hegseth Has Declassified ‘All Benghazi Files’ Is Satire

An image shared on Facebook claims Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has purportedly declassified “all [of the] Benghazi files.”

Verdict: False

The claim is false and originally stems from a recent article published by the satire site “The Dunning-Kruger Times.” A spokesperson for the Department of Defense (DOD) denied the claim’s validity in an email to Check Your Fact.

Fact Check:

The DOD is planning to cut up to 60,000 civilian jobs, according to Fox News. Around 21,000 employees have voluntarily resigned amid the department’s planned reduction of its workforce, the outlet reported.

The Facebook image claims Hegseth has purportedly declassified “all [of the] Benghazi files.”

“Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Declassifies All Benghazi Files,” text superimposed on the image reads. The image shows side-by-side photos of Hegseth and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The claim is false and originally stems from a recent article published by the satire site “The Dunning-Kruger Times.” According to the website’s “About Us” page, it is a “subsidiary of the ‘America’s Last Line of Defense’ network of parody, satire, and tomfoolery.”

Likewise, Check Your Fact did not find any reference to the claim on the DOD’s website or its verified social media accounts. Hegseth does not appear to have commented on the claim using his personal or government X accounts. Clinton has not publicly addressed the claim, either.

In addition, Check Your Fact found no credible news reports to support the claim. Actually, the opposite is true. On March 19, Lead Stories debunked the claim, tracing its origin to the same satirical website. (RELATED: Did Tulsi Gabbard Say Trump And Putin Were Good Friends?)

Furthermore, a spokesperson for the DOD denied the claim’s validity in an email to Check Your Fact.

“The story is fiction,” the spokesperson said.