The Pentagon Tried to Blackmail a Reporter—Just for Asking Questions - Bulwark Takes

Podcast Summary: Bulwark Takes

Episode: The Pentagon Tried to Blackmail a Reporter—Just for Asking Questions

Host: Tim Miller (The Bulwark)
Date: December 13, 2025

Episode Overview

In this episode, Tim Miller of The Bulwark unpacks a disturbing story reported by Dan Friedman of Mother Jones detailing how the Pentagon, through intermediaries, allegedly attempted to intimidate and blackmail a journalist for investigating a senior Pentagon advisor’s background. Miller focuses not just on the particulars of the case, but on the broader implications for press freedom, transparency, and the worrying erosion of genuine journalistic oversight in U.S. defense reporting.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Mother Jones Reporting on Pentagon Intimidation

Miller summarizes Dan Friedman's investigative article in Mother Jones titled "I asked the Pentagon about Pete Hegseth’s mentor. Then the threat started."
The triggering incident involved Friedman sending the Pentagon questions about Eric Garessi, a senior advisor to Pete Hegseth (high-ranking Pentagon official), particularly concerning allegations of inappropriate behavior toward women and his past associations.
After Friedman reached out for comment, he received threatening messages from Jack Posobiek, a far-right pundit and recently added Pentagon press corps member, containing personal and unfounded allegations mirroring his own inquiries.

2. Freedom of the Press at Risk

Miller emphasizes that a reporter’s right to investigate and to ask tough questions of public officials is a pillar of democracy:
- [04:08] Tim Miller: “The fact that a reporter could reach out to the department ask about a high ranking official’s behavior... is the right of a reporter in this country. Like, we have freedom of the press, we have freedom of speech.”
He argues that the Pentagon’s reaction—resorting to intimidation rather than simply responding or declining to comment—reveals a troubling hostility toward scrutiny and transparency.

3. Media Access Shrinking at the Pentagon

Miller notes a recent trend of the Pentagon excluding independent or critical reporters, resulting in a press corps of compliant sycophants:
- [03:45] Tim Miller: “Department of War—has kicked out all of the real reporters from the Pentagon. And it's crazy we don't talk about this every day. That North Korea, USSR style coverage of our military...only sycophants are allowed in there.”

4. Weaponizing Press Credentials & 'Agit Prop' Journalism

Miller details Jack Posobiek’s background as an Internet agitator involved in the “Pizzagate” disinformation campaign:
- [06:38] Tim Miller: “Jack Posobiek...one of the leading purveyors of Pizzagate...He’s now supposedly a reporter with the obligation of holding people in the Department of War to account…”
Instead of conducting legitimate reporting, Posobiek allegedly acted as a “cutout” for Pentagon officials, mirroring Friedman’s own style of inquiry back at him as a form of intimidation:
- [12:39] Tim Miller: “Jack was mirroring the questions, accusations that Friedman was offering to the press team…throwing them back on him…in a way that was accusatory and threatening. And frankly, it was an attempt at blackmail.”

5. Legitimacy of the Investigation

Miller stresses that the original journalistic inquiries—about past accusations against Garessi, potential conflicts of interest, and even his 'Goodreads' reading history—are valid lines of inquiry for someone reviewing the role of women in the armed forces.
He is clear that reporting on sexual proclivities is not, in itself, the issue—but when such matters intersect with official duties and past accusations, they are fair game for reporting.

6. Government Retaliation Over Personal Matters

Miller condemns the government’s attempt to leverage personal information about Friedman in retaliation, rather than engaging with the reporting on its merits:
- [12:50] Tim Miller: “The government shouldn’t be blackmailing people with that because they are upset that reporters are trying to bring some sunlight to the types of people that have very influential roles in our military. It’s crazy that that is happening.”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

[02:59] Tim Miller: “This is a Department of War. Department of War. Department of War, Department of War, War.”
(Miller repeats this phrase for effect, underlining the perceived militarization and opacity of the Pentagon under current leadership.)
[07:34] Tim Miller: “This guy, if you don’t know him—Pizzagate. Jack Posobiek. I’ve dealt with him a fair amount over the years, and he was one of the leading purveyors of Pizzagate.”
[12:39] Tim Miller: “Jack was mirroring the questions, accusations that Friedman was offering to the press team… doing it in a way that was accusatory and threatening. And frankly, it was an attempt at blackmail.”
[12:50] Tim Miller: “The government shouldn’t be blackmailing people with that because they are upset that reporters are trying to bring some sunlight to the types of people that have very influential roles in our military. It’s crazy that that is happening.”
[13:01] Tim Miller: “Those are the people that are now supposedly representing the fourth estate at the Department of War. Really astonishing. I mean, not astonishing with this group, what you’d expect from this group, but the details of this story are crazy.”

Important Timestamps

[02:00] – [03:45]: Miller introduces the Mother Jones story and outlines why the story is significant for press freedom.
[06:38] – [07:34]: Explanation of Jack Posobiek’s background and his role in intimidating Friedman.
[10:30] – [12:39]: Miller elaborates on the content of Friedman's investigation, the Pentagon's response, and the seriousness of the attempted blackmail.
[12:50] – [13:01]: Summary reflections on the broader implications for press accountability and the integrity of Pentagon reporting.

Tone & Style

Tim Miller’s delivery is impassioned, urgent, and laced with sarcasm and dark humor, particularly when describing Pentagon sycophancy and the absurdity of the intimidation tactics. The tone remains critical and incredulous throughout, reflecting serious concern about the implications for American democracy and press freedom.

Bottom Line

This episode serves as both a summary of an explosive investigative report and a warning about the state of military-media relations: the Pentagon appears not only to be limiting access to genuine journalists, but to be leveraging friendly propagandists to suppress and intimidate reporting that threatens to shine light on internal dysfunction or problematic figures. Miller calls for listeners to support rigorous journalism and stay vigilant to these abuses of power.

Transcript

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Tim Miller (2:00)

Hey everybody, Tim Miller from the Bulwark here. A really crazy story from our friends at Mother Jones I wanted to highlight for you. It is by Dan Friedman, a good reporter over there. And the headline of that story is I asked the Pentagon about Pete Hegseth's mentor. Then the threat started. This story, you know, is going to get into some sexual accusations back and forth that you know we're going to need to go through to kind of understand what's happening. But I just want you to really understand why this is such an important story. Why I wanted to focus on it here. The fact that a reporter could reach out to the department ask about a high ranking officials behavior and asking questions about their past for a profile like that is the right of a reporter in this country. Like we have freedom of the press, we have freedom of speech. And that this administration's response to that, those requests has ended up being the real story here. And this is a Department of War. Department of War. Department of War, Department of War, War. The Department of War has kicked out all of the real reporters from the Pentagon. And it's crazy we don't talk about this every day. That North Korea, USSR style coverage of our military at least within the Pentagon press corps right now it's just only sycophants are allowed in there. They've kicked out all the real reporters. And so simultaneously when they're doing that, when people outside the building outside the Pentagon are trying to do reporting, you're about to see how they act and how they treat folks doing real reporting which is to intimidate and threaten them using cutouts and using friends of the department and friends of Hagseth. So it is a truly astonishing and un American behavior from from our Department of War which is what we're calling it now. Department of War. Here's the story. Here's how it starts. Six weeks ago Jack Posobiek asked me to comment on whether I have a creepy fetish for Asian women. This was one of several false and wildly personal allegations that the far right pundit and newly minted member of the Pentagon press corps. This guy's in the press corps said he planned to include in a story I'm writing about you. Freedman writes. I immediately understood this email to be a threat, though it was not made explicit because the day before I'd sent the Pentagon press office a series of questions concerning Eric Garessi, a senior Pentagon advisor to Pete Hegseth. Guresi had been a longtime friend and mentor of Hegseth. He's part of the Pentagon effort to instill a warrior ethos within the US military and he now leads a team reviewing the role of women in the armed forces. So I think reasonably Friedman was looking to his past and was asking questions about this guy who is, who's reviewing the role of women in the armed forces and wants to know whether past allegations of his behavior with women are true. For the response to that from the Pentagon not to be not simply no comment. Not simply oh I want to correct the record not and not even complaining about the fake news. The response to be to go to get some fake news agit prop reporter and have that person go after the reporter doing a real, real work investigating the department, and to have this hack threaten them, that is crazy. That's House of Cards type stuff like that. Like what? This reporter's personal life is being threatened by a supposed reporter who's there to cover a very important department. The one that's overseeing the bombings in the Caribbean right now. This guy, if you don't know him, Pizzagate. Jack Posobiek. I've dealt with him a fair amount over the years, and he was one of the leading purveyors of Pizzagate. Pizzagate, as I think probably most people watching this know, ended up resulting in. And one of the folks who consumed the various influencers pushing this far right. Influencers pushing this, including Posobiek, one of them was radicalized to such a degree that he went to a literal pizza parlor with a gun in Washington, D.C. threatening and menacing people looking for the supposed child sex ring that was in the basement of the pizza parlor. Posobiec was involved in pushing all that. And he was on the scene one time, one day he pushed back at me and saying he wasn't really him because he was just trying to get to the bottom of it. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, we were just trying to get to the bottom of it. You know, he was just asking questions about the supposed child sex trafficking wing in the basement of a pizza parlor with no basement. So that's Posobiec. He's now supposedly a reporter with the obligation of holding people in the Department of War to account and reporting on what is happening inside the department. And instead of doing that, what he's doing is doing the dirty work of Hagseth and his minions by going after a reporter who was actually doing some real journalism. For a little more background on Gressi, Hagseth once called him Gressi, again, being the guy that Friedman was reporting on from other Jones. Gressi, Hagseth once said, was my toughest critic and my best mentor. Hegseth this march, presented him with the Distinguished Service Cross. And he's super influential inside the the Pentagon. And so among the things that Friedman was asking about was in 2016, Gressy lived with a woman who evidence suggests maybe a Chinese national. There's some reasonable questions there about somebody who's like a senior advisor to the head of our military, was entangled, you know, possibly with Chinese spies, and maybe not. It's certainly something worth looking into. It wasn't something that was, you know, recklessly reported and bandied about. The reporter also asked about a 1997 case where a jury acquitted him of a domestic violence charge after an accusation by his then wife, the reporter uncovered at Mother Jones was that Guaressi had a Goodreads account. Rare person in the Trump administration to read, so shout out to Guaressi for that. But among the things he was reading was books featuring stories about Asian wife sharing. There were pornographic works with titles such as Asian Wife Went With Her Dad's Friend, A Cuckold Story. These reviews appeared alongside some books by Hegseth, which, you know, are probably written at about the same level. You know, Pete Hegseth is known for his, like, porn level, writing the. The books. Not the Hegseth books, but the books that Degrassi was reading include details, descriptions of cuckold in group sex, ladyboys, etc. Again, I just want to reiterate because I don't want anybody to misconstrue. The Borg YouTube feed is one that is like, you know, really, like, I'm out here, like Mike Johnson, looking into the porn that people are watching. Like, I don't. I don't. I don't really care if you want to read a book about ladyboys and cuckolding. Like, God love you, this is America usa. I also think that if you're going to be a senior advisor to the military and you're going to be overseeing what role women have in the military, and you have been accused, acquitted, but accused in the past of domestic violence, you've had some questionable relationships, you know, you have an open account on Goodreads that demonstrates the type of material you're looking. It's worth mentioning in the story, it's worth asking about. And, you know, and I think, again, in a free country, I think the right thing to do would be to either have said no comment or to have Garessi called Friedman and be like, what kind of porn books are you reading, bro? Like, can I see your. Can I see your pornhub account? Like, yeah, okay, I read a couple of the. Read a couple of the late Ladyboy books. Guilty. I also respect ladies in the military. And, you know, I don't. I don't appreciate this, you know, kind of journalism. That's a perfectly appropriate pushback. That's fine. We can do that. Like, you know, there can be a give and take between reporters and representatives of the government. That's not what they did. They sicced Posobiek on him. So it wasn't just the one time. I think it is worth mentioning that then after Friedman had Thought maybe, you know, Sobecause was just rattled in his cage and he could continue on with the story he heard from Pizzagate Jack again, Jack said to him, I am quote finalizing my story. And he wanted to know if me being Friedman, his wife or your in laws wish to comment. That message arrived one hour 40 minutes after Friedman had written to Goressi posing some last questions for him and telling him he was quote finalizing his story. So you can just see what happens here. Like Jack was mirroring the questions, accusations that Friedman was offering to the press team at the Pentagon regarding Goresi. He was mirroring those questions and throwing them back on him and doing it in a way that was accusatory and threatening. And frankly, it was an attempt at blackmail. To his credit, Friedman and the Mother Jones story acknowledges that Posobiek in his, you know, emails, in his various emails threatening him included, said that he had two sources about, you know, certain behavior with women that this reporter had engaged in. And Friedman to his credit, writes in the story that like he, one of the sources may have been a woman he had a brief relationship with a decade ago. Let me just continue reading this. He goes, contrary to the email's depiction, however, that relationship was amicable, he says, but it was part of some personal messiness, especially around the end of my first marriage. And that is embarrassing. So, so like I said, everybody has stuff to be embarrassing that they've done that they don't want their mom to learn about. The government shouldn't be blackmailing people with that because they are upset that reporters are trying to bring some sunlight to the types of people that have very influential roles in our military. It's crazy that that is happening. It's crazy that the people do that. The person doing it, Jack Posobiek, is allegedly a reporter himself. He's obviously with the Pentagon press team. He's pretending to be a reporter, but in fact he's an arm of the Pentagon press team. And so that is the type of agit prop we have inside the Pentagon right now. Not just yes sir, you're so great sir, nice push ups, sir, but like what can I do for you to go after your foes? Those are the people that are now supposedly representing the fourth estate at the Department of War. Really astonishing. I mean, not astonishing with this group, what you'd expect from this group, but the details of this story are crazy. Go read the whole thing over at Mother Jones. Support their journalism. Appreciate Dan Friedman for his work and for not being bullied by Hegseth and posobiek all right, subscribe to us here as well. We'll keep you posted. When I see stuff that catches my eye that I want to pass along to you guys and make sure that hit that little bell and comment and make sure you know what's up with us because I'm always looking out for you. All right, guys, we'll see you soon. Peace. What do you think makes the perfect snack?