Exclusive: Chairman Wicker, Republicans Demand Accountability After IG Report Reveals Lloyd Austin Went AWOL Twice

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) and 11 Republican senators are demanding President Joe Biden hold Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin accountable, after a Department of Defense inspector general report released this week found he failed to follow the law when he hid multiple hospitalizations from the White House, breaking the chain of command and jeopardizing the safety of the nation.

The IG report found Austin violated the Federal Vacancies Reform Act (FVRA) twice in December 2023 and January 2024, but also on two additional occasions unknown to the American public in June 2024.

In a letter to Biden sent Thursday, Wicker and the senators wrote:

For days in December, January, and June, no one in Congress or in your administration knew that Secretary Austin was unable to perform the functions and duties of the Secretary, or that Deputy Secretary Hicks was the acting Secretary…

At the time of these absences, your administration was still reeling from a Chinese intelligence and reconnaissance balloon sailing across the United States, Putin continued his violent and illegal war on Ukraine all the while rattling the nuclear saber, and violent Islamic terrorists and other Iran-backed extremists were ramping up for an historic assault on Israel, emboldened by your disastrous abandonment of Afghanistan.

The world was far from stable, and America was not safe. What makes this situation so much worse, however, is that the moment Secretary Austin’s office became vacant, no one had control of the nuclear football and the entire American nuclear enterprise was left idling.

“It is incredibly fortunate that no major national security crisis occurred while Secretary Austin was incapacitated, however, the [Office of Inspector General] report itself recognizes that if a crisis had occurred in that time frame, the outcome could have been disastrous for our nation,” they wrote.

The DOD IG report was released to the public with just days left in the Biden administration and no seeming accountability for Austin is imminent.

However, the senators urged that he “must be held accountable for betraying his office, betraying the trust of the American people, violating the FVRA multiple times, and fumbling the nuclear football.”

“There must be accountability for Secretary Austin’s irresponsible behavior, your administration’s multiple violations of the FVRA, and the mishandling of the nuclear football. Certainly, if a uniformed officer had done only one of these things he or she would be facing the end of their career. Sadly, those in charge seem to believe that the same standards do not apply to them.  The American people will no longer accept a lack of accountability for the failures of our senior military leaders, whether civilian or uniformed,” the senators wrote.”

“In your last week in office, you must do the right thing and hold Secretary Austin accountable for his multiple failures to comply with the law and notify Congress of vacancies in his office,” they added.

The letter is signed by Wicker and committee members Sens. Deb Fischer (R-NE), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Joni Ernst, (R-IA), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Rick Scott (R-FL), Tommy Tubervill (R-AL), Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), Ted Budd K(R-NC), Eric Schmitt (R-MO), Jim Banks (R-IN) and Tim Sheehy (R-MT).

01.16.25 Sasc Letter to Potus Re Secdef Fvra Violations.signed (003) by Kristina Wong on Scribd

The IG investigation began after the Pentagon admitted in a statement on January 5, 2024, which said Austin had been admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for “complications following a recent elective medical procedure” on the evening of January 1. The Pentagon said he was “expecting to resume his full duties” that day.

Austin did not inform the president or the National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, or Congress, until January 4, 2024. He had not even told his own deputy, who was on vacation in Puerto Rico and remained there while she assumed some of his duties.

The report found that Deputy Secretary Kathleen Hicks also failed to notify Congress and the White House as required by law when she assumed the role of acting secretary.

Inspector General Robert P. Storch said in a statement:

The ability for the DoD and the government to operate seamlessly and the continuity of leadership under any and all circumstances are fundamental to our national security.

Although we found no adverse consequences to DoD operations arising from how the hospitalizations we reviewed were handled, the risks to our national defense, including the command and control of the DoD’s critical national security operations, were increased unnecessarily.

The report revealed that Austin had transferred certain authorities to the Deputy Secretary for approximately 36 hours on December 22 through 23, 2023, but he did not inform her of the reason for the transfer.

It found that when Austin was hospitalized afterwards in January resulting from complications, he transferred certain authorities to her, but “there was not a common understanding in the Department or by the Deputy Secretary that these transfers meant that, as a matter of law, she was serving as the Acting Secretary of Defense during these periods.”

It found that during his hospitalization between January 5-15, he had three additional medical procedures and was “moderately sedated” for two and had received written and verbal advice not to engage in activities requiring unimpaired physical and mental ability for 24 hours after the procedures, but did not transfer his authorities to his deputy.

“He was also advised that general anesthesia might be required. Nevertheless, Secretary Austin did not transfer his authorities and the OIG found no evidence that a transfer was considered or that Secretary Austin informed the Deputy Secretary or his Chief of Staff of the procedures,” it said.

“Finally, on February 11, Secretary Austin was again unexpectedly hospitalized because of significant medical complications. Despite his severe condition, and his later testimony to the OIG that he believed he had transferred his authorities before he went to the hospital, the OIG found that the weight of the evidence supported that the transfer did not occur until several hours later, after the Secretary was again hospitalized,” it said.

As to whether Austin tried to hide his hospitalizations when a 9-1-1 dispatcher was told to send an ambulance but to not use lights and sirens, the report said “the OIG assessed that the weight of the evidence supported that Secretary Austin made these requests.”

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