Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing mounting pressure to name a new Army secretary amid the ongoing war with Iran, and he is reportedly weighing his own Pentagon press secretary for the post — a man who abandoned a Senate campaign in 2021 amid accusations that he choked his wife and abused their children.

According to The Hill, Sean Parnell could be tabbed for the high-pressure job. Parnell, who also serves as a senior adviser to Hegseth, "has privately expressed his interest in the role," The Hill reported. He would succeed Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, who is eyeing a departure from the Pentagon in the coming months, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The post is the Army's top civilian job, responsible for the service's roughly 450,000 active-duty soldiers along with its budget, manpower and weapons programs, and any nomination would require Senate confirmation — a hurdle Hegseth himself cleared in January 2025 only on a 51-50 vote, with Vice President JD Vance breaking the tie, after denying his own allegations of personal misconduct.

The pressure on Hegseth to fill the position intensified after The New York Times reported this week that Army leadership has been "gutted" under him. The service has been without a chief of staff — its highest-ranking uniformed officer — since Hegseth fired Gen. Randy George without explanation in April, and there are no signs that a replacement is imminent. George's dismissal came amid a broader wave of senior officer removals under the administration that also swept out Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. and Navy Adm. Lisa Franchetti, the chief of naval operations.

Parnell is a decorated Afghanistan War veteran — a former Army Ranger captain who led an infantry platoon in eastern Afghanistan and later co-wrote the memoir Outlaw Platoon — and was awarded two Bronze Stars and a Purple Heart. He ran for Congress twice before mounting a Senate campaign in Pennsylvania that carried Donald Trump's endorsement. He withdrew from that race in November 2021 after losing a custody battle over his three children; the judge in the case said he found the abuse allegations made by Parnell's estranged wife credible. Parnell has denied the allegations, saying, "I never raised a hand in anger towards my wife or any of our three children."

According to the Washington Post:

"[Laurie] Snell has accused Parnell of multiple forms of abuse before their separation, including choking her and hitting one of their children so hard he left a “full handprint” mark on the child’s back. She testified that Parnell has thrown chairs across the room toward her; pinned her down and screamed profanities at her; called her crazy in front of the children; and once dropped her off on Interstate 79 when she was six months pregnant and told her to get an abortion."

Reacting to The Hill's report, a Pentagon spokesperson said Parnell remains on Hegseth's short list despite his troubled history.

"Mr. Parnell has a deep bench of supporters throughout the Administration and has worked tirelessly to enable cultural change and accountability in the Pentagon," the spokesperson stated.