**I Asked the Pentagon About Pete Hegseth's Mentor. Then the Threats Started.**

A few weeks ago, I found myself in a situation that was both surreal and disturbing. I had been investigating Eric Geressy, a senior Pentagon adviser to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and sent him a series of questions about his role in promoting a "warrior ethos" within the US military. The next day, I received an email from Jack Posobiec, a far-right pundit who has recently joined the Pentagon press corps, accusing me of having a "creepy fetish for Asian women." It was just one of several false and personal allegations he threatened to include in a story about me.

I immediately understood Posobiec's email as a threat, though it wasn't explicitly stated. The timing was suspicious - the previous day, I had sent inquiries to the Pentagon press office, and now this new development seemed like an attempt to intimidate me into spiking my own story. But what really caught my attention was that Posobiec had given me a deadline, 5 p.m. on October 29, which just happened to be the same as the one I had given the Pentagon press office.

Posobiec's email claimed I had "a history of objectifying women" and made false accusations about my personal life. He even asked about my marriage and suggested that he might have a source who was somehow connected to me. Contrary to his depiction, our relationship was amicable at the time, but it was part of some personal messiness that I'd rather not revisit.

The threatened audience for the smear, clearly, was my peers - and my wife. It seemed meant to scare me into spiking my own story, which is not journalism, but an attack on journalism. This apparent threat became more explicit as the possible publication date approached. In tweets, Posobiec asked his followers if he should publish a story about mistreatment of women by a "DC-area liberal reporter." After our possible publication date passed, though, he went quiet.

That left my editors and me with a problem. We knew that we wouldn't drop the article because of Posobiec's ploy, nor rush into running it before we were ready. Instead, we decided to do what reporters are supposed to do when confronted with a journalism dilemma: more journalism. We kept asking questions, talked to more people, and worked to verify the information we had.

One thing that stood out was Geressy's Goodreads account, which linked his email address to a public page featuring racy titles. The account was listed under the username Eric J - Geressy's middle name is Joseph. Some of the non-erotic books displayed on the account were seemingly of interest to him; they included books by Hegseth and military histories. These titles may be minor compared to other Pentagon scandals, but their existence adds to the impression that the department's leadership is not only hypocritical, but inept.

As I delved deeper into the story, I realized that Geressy was a top official in a Defense Department that has booted trans people from the military based on President Trump's executive order. This policy raises questions about whether officials like Geressy are truly committed to an "honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle," as they claim.

The Pentagon press shop maintains close ties with its newly constituted press corps, which is largely composed of far-right activists. The department has recently decided to force outlets that assign reporters to the Pentagon to agree to a policy that bars reporters from revealing news the department does not authorize. Most news organizations refused, but Posobiec and his ilk accepted the restrictive terms.

As I finished writing this story, I received another email from Posobiec, asking if my wife, or even my in-laws, wanted to comment on the story. This was just an hour and forty minutes after I had written to Geressy, posing some last questions and telling him that I was "finalizing this story."

The threat to the free press is real, and it's insidious. The Pentagon wants reporters to be not just docile recipients of their preferred narratives but active propagandists. This is a direct attack on journalism, and it threatens to make us bad at our jobs. It can be harder work to treat people whom we cover critically like complete human beings, deserving of empathy and a real chance to explain themselves.

As I reflect on this experience, I'm reminded that in journalism, like everywhere else, we should treat people the way we want to be treated. We aim for fairness and honesty, even when faced with intimidation or personal attacks. This story may not appease the Pentagon or those who threatened me, but it's a reminder of our values as journalists - and the importance of standing up for those principles.