Army secretary rescinds West Point offer to Biden administration appointee

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll announced Wednesday he had directed the U.S. Military Academy at West Point to rescind a leadership offer extended to former Biden appointee Jen Easterly.

Easterly, a former Army intelligence officer who helped establish the U.S. Cyber Command at the National Security Agency (NSA), served as U.S. director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) during the Biden administration.

The move comes after leaked internal emails from Big Tech firms showed censorship pressure from the government during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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After a subpoena from House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, major tech companies, including Google’s parent, Alphabet; Amazon; Apple; Meta; and Microsoft, were investigated for allegedly censoring free speech relating to COVID-19 and vaccines, regardless of accuracy, under pressure from the Biden administration.

 Internal communications showed some tech executives pushed back, while others complied.

Daniel Driscoll testifies before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on his nomination by President Donald Trump to become secretary of the Army Jan. 30, in Washington, D.C. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

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Easterly was previously deployed to Iraq to investigate how terrorists were using communication technology for recruitment and radicalization.

In a copy of the memo posted to X, Driscoll ordered West Point to terminate the “gratuitous” service agreement with Easterly, noting she will no longer serve as the Robert F. McDermott Distinguished Chair in the Department of Social Sciences.

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Driscoll also told the academy to “immediately pause” non-governmental and outside groups from selecting employees, including instructors, professors and teachers and shaping academic or developmental lectures, according to the memo.

The U.S. Military Academy Board of Visitors chair will be required to conduct an immediate top-down review of the institution’s hiring practices.

“The secretary of the Army took immediate action to direct West Point to terminate the service agreement with Jen Easterly, pause outside groups from selecting Academy employees or instructors and has requested a review of West Point’s hiring practices,” an Army spokesperson wrote in a statement to Digital. 

“Ahead of the upcoming academic year, we are crafting a deliberate approach to ensure that our future officers are best prepared to meet the demands of the modern battlefield.” 

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The Pentagon referred Digital to Army Public Affairs.

Digital’s Jamie Joseph contributed to this report.