Washington DC - Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was recently ordered to call off his bizarre effort to try and weed out leakers in his department after an official filed a complaint.

According to The Washington Post, Hegseth and his team began administering the tests back in April, as they sought to catch anyone on the inside who had been leaking information to the press.

The team managed to test members of the Joint Service Interagency Advisory Group – which includes Special Operations troops and representatives from other government agencies – as well as Colonel Ricky Buria, who Hegseth made senior adviser despite his test having inconclusive results.

Patrick Weaver, Hegseth's adviser and a long-time ally of President Donald Trump's, complained to the White House that he could be targeted to take a test, as the possibility "angered" him.

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The complaint prompted an administration official to call Hegseth and his team, ordering them to call off their effort.

The polygraph tests came as Hegseth, a former Fox News anchor with no prior political experience, has faced numerous scandals since President Trump appointed him to lead the Department of Defense.

The most serious scandal came in March, when it was revealed that Hegseth had shared details about upcoming strikes against Yemen's Houthi rebels in two separate group chats using the commercial messaging app Signal after a journalist was inadvertently included in one of the chats. It was also recently discovered that some of the messages contained highly classified military information.

When reached for comment about the polygraph tests, a spokesperson for the Pentagon refused to address the reported claims, stating, "The Department will not comment on an ongoing investigation."

"The Fake News Media's obsession with months-old workplace gossip is a reflection of the sad and pathetic state of 'journalism' in Washington," the spokesperson added.