A private elevator into the defense secretary’s suite, a standing line to his chief of staff and a 40-minute grilling of a job candidate have landed the Pentagon chief’s wife in federal court filings.

Democracy Forward, a legal advocacy group, sued the Defense Department on Sept. 28 seeking records on Jennifer Hegseth’s access to Pentagon officials, facilities and information.

The department acknowledged the group’s Freedom of Information Act requests, the first of them filed in 2025, according to Democracy Forward. The department then stopped responding and turned over nothing, the group said.

“Democracy demands transparency,” said Skye Perryman, Democracy Forward president and CEO.

The suit followed an Aug. 19 report on the defense secretary’s wife by Elisabeth Bumiller, a former Pentagon correspondent for The New York Times.

The Elevator Nobody Else Rides

Bumiller’s report described a private elevator running from a parking garage straight into the secretary’s suite, which Jennifer Hegseth is free to use, and a standing line of communication with his chief of staff. Nobody seemed certain whether she holds a security clearance. Nothing like the arrangement had existed in the building before, the report said.

“Her involvement in the Defense Department is so unusual that it has led to questions about Mr. Hegseth’s leadership,” Bumiller wrote.

John Ullyot, who spent three months as the secretary’s chief spokesman before leaving the Pentagon, expected little more than a friendly hello when he sat down with Jennifer Hegseth about the job. She questioned him for 40 minutes, zeroing in on how he would handle a hostile press corps, the report said.

Ullyot also said it was hard to believe the head of the Pentagon could bring his wife into sensitive matters, including details of an upcoming military operation, without any consequences.

“Any president deserves better judgment from his national security leaders,” Ullyot told the Times.

An unnamed administration official said she reinforces her husband’s combative stance toward the press and has helped keep journalists out of the building — a striking turn for a former journalist.

From Fox News Segments to Staff Vetting

The couple met in cable news and have been married seven years. She produced his Fox News segments.

Her Pentagon work includes preparing him for public appearances, sitting in on his sessions with reporters, vetting candidates for his staff and helping shape the department’s videos, some of which feature her. She has been seen in the Oval Office, moves freely through the Pentagon and travels with her husband on official business.

A Second Signal Chat and a British Meeting

Questions about her access to sensitive material date back to 2025. SignalGate put her in a second Signal chat created by her husband, a chat that carried the same warplane launch times as the original.

That same year, she joined him for a highly sensitive meeting with senior British defense officials, held after the U.S. briefly suspended military intelligence sharing with Ukraine. The British side was uneasy about her presence and held back further information until she left the room, an unnamed Trump administration official said in the August report.

The couple were in the Dominican Republic in November 2025, the same period officials were negotiating U.S. access to an air base and an airport for operations against suspected drug traffickers. In April, cameras filmed the two leaving a House Armed Services Committee hearing together on the department’s fiscal 2027 budget request.

One video shows her working out with sailors beside her husband aboard the USS Boxer in Singapore. Six of the couple’s seven children joined them at a D-Day commemoration in Normandy.

Her One Title Came From Trump

She holds one formal post. President Donald Trump named her chairwoman of the President’s Military Spouse Commission, a body he created by executive order in August. She led the commission’s first meeting at the White House on Sept. 21, alongside her husband.

None of her involvement is illegal, and none of it has cost the secretary his job. The questions raised in August about her unofficial role — including whether she has ever held a security clearance — remain unresolved.