Army officials pull out of Defense News conference after 'disapproval' from OSD

Two Army officials who were scheduled to speak at an annual conference hosted by Defense News Wednesday morning canceled their appearance at the last minute following a directive from higher up within the Defense Department.

Brandon Pugh, the principal cyber adviser to the Army secretary, and Lt. Gen. Karl Gingrich, the deputy chief of staff of the Army G-8, were among multiple defense officials scheduled to speak Wednesday at the conference in Washington. However, it was announced at the conference that they canceled their appearance the day before.

According to a statement from the Army Communications and Outreach Office provided to Inside Defense, “attendance of Army senior officials to speak at the Defense News Conference was disapproved by the Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs.”

Additionally, Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA) was scheduled to speak at Wednesday’s conference, but canceled his appearance and instead recorded a five-minute video.

The Defense News conference is the latest in a series of public events in which defense officials from the Trump administration have canceled their previously scheduled appearances on short notice.

In July after several officials pulled out of their planned appearance at the Aspen Security Forum, the Defense Department announced it was reviewing its participation in all think-tank events to ensure that the host organizations aligned with the politics of the Trump administration. However, that policy has since extended to other organizations that are not think tanks.