--- title: Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan Faces Probe description: The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General has launched an investigation into Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan. canonical: https://time.com/5555186/patrick-shanahan-defense-ethics-probe/ author: W.J. Hennigan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-03-20T18:22:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T00:21:13.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: The Pentagon's Watchdog Is Investigating Whether the Acting Defense Secretary Boosted Boeing og:description: Patrick Shanahan previously said criticism was "just noise." og:url: https://time.com/5555186/patrick-shanahan-defense-ethics-probe/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltafb6994a73662871/6989428be76ad2729c633e43/Trump-Sanctions-are-Coming.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Pentagon's Watchdog Is Investigating Whether the Acting Defense Secretary Boosted Boeing twitter:description: Patrick Shanahan previously said criticism was "just noise." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltafb6994a73662871/6989428be76ad2729c633e43/Trump-Sanctions-are-Coming.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Pentagon's Watchdog Is Investigating Whether the Acting Defense Secretary Boosted Boeing > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [W.J. Hennigan](https://time.com/author/w-j-hennigan/)  ## W.J. Hennigan Updated: Dec 13, 2023 12:21 AM UTCPublished: Mar 20, 2019 6:22 PM UTC  U.S. President Donald Trump (L) leads a meeting of his Cabinet, including (2nd L-R) acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, in the Cabinet Room at the White House January 02, 2019 in Washington, DC.  by [W.J. Hennigan](https://time.com/author/w-j-hennigan/)  ## W.J. Hennigan Updated: Dec 13, 2023 12:21 AM UTCPublished: Mar 20, 2019 6:22 PM UTC The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General confirmed it has launched an investigation into whether Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan has violated any ethics rules by promoting his former employer Boeing while serving in the Trump Administration. The investigation comes a week after a government watchdog group, called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), [wrote a nine-page complaint](https://s3.amazonaws.com/storage.citizensforethics.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/13141931/Shanahan-Letter-3-13-19-FINAL.pdf) to the Pentagon’s inspector general urging the agency to scrutinize the relationship. At issue is whether Shanahan pushed the Pentagon to buy more Boeing-made F-15X fighter jets, which the Air Force does not want, and whether he criticized Boeing-rival Lockheed Martin Corp. during government meetings. Shanahan, who came to the Pentagon after spending more than three decades at Boeing, has routinely fended off questions about potential conflicts of interest with the aerospace company that also happens to be one of the largest suppliers for the U.S. military. Last week, he told Congress that he welcomed any such investigation into his actions in office. In its complaint, CREW cited a [Politico report](https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/09/defense-patrick-shanahan-boeing-pentagon-1064203) in January that said Shanahan had been promoting Boeing while criticizing the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a Lockheed Martin program. The plane was “f-cked up,” he reportedly said, and Lockheed Martin “doesn’t know how to run a program.” “The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General has decided to investigate complaints we recently received that Acting Secretary Patrick Shanahan allegedly took actions to promote his former employer, Boeing, and disparage its competitors, allegedly in violation of ethics rules,” Dwrena Allen, a spokesperson for the inspector general, said in a statement. “In his recent Senate Armed Services Committee testimony, Acting Secretary Shanahan stated that he supported an investigation into these allegations. We have informed him that we have initiated this investigation.” The confirmation of the investigation is a rarity for the Inspector General’s office, which usually maintains a policy not to confirm or deny the existence of investigations. Lieutenant Colonel Joe Buccino, a spokesman for Shanahan, said in a statement that the Acting Secretary invites the investigation. “Acting Secretary Shanahan has at all times remained committed to upholding his ethics agreement filed with the DoD,” he said. “This agreement ensures any matters pertaining to Boeing are handled by appropriate officials within the Pentagon to eliminate any perceived or actual conflict of interest issue with Boeing.” The allegations, however, take on increased importance now that Shanahan, 56, is under serious consideration to become Defense Secretary. He has the dubious distinction of being the longest serving “Acting Defense Secretary” in the nation’s history: 78 days and counting. He stepped up from the No. 2 spot to take the lead role after [James Mattis resigned](http://time.com/5487705/trump-pushes-mattis-out/) as Defense Secretary on Dec. 31. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5555186/patrick-shanahan-defense-ethics-probe/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5555186/patrick-shanahan-defense-ethics-probe/"},"headline":"The Pentagon's Watchdog Is Investigating Whether the Acting Defense Secretary Boosted Boeing","datePublished":"2019-03-20T18:22:57.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T00:21:13.000Z","description":"The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General has launched an investigation into Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan.","url":"https://time.com/5555186/patrick-shanahan-defense-ethics-probe/","keywords":["Military","White House","Boeing","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltafb6994a73662871/6989428be76ad2729c633e43/Trump-Sanctions-are-Coming.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"W.J. 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