Major General Antonio Aguto, who oversaw U.S. military support for Ukraine from December 2022 to September 2024, left classified maps marked 'SECRET' on a train during his service, according to a Pentagon watchdog report issued last week.
Key Takeaways
A Pentagon watchdog report found that Major General Antonio Aguto left classified maps marked 'SECRET' on a Ukrainian train during his service overseeing U.S. military support for Ukraine from December 2022 to September 2024. The Defense Department inspector general's investigation also revealed incidents of alcohol misuse, including a concussion suffered after heavy drinking.
- Major General Antonio Aguto left classified maps on a Ukrainian train in April 2024
- The maps were recovered by the Ukrainian director of train security and returned to the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv
- Aguto suffered a concussion from falls after drinking heavily, incapacitating him for meetings
- Witnesses described Aguto as appearing disheveled and cognitively diminished during a meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken
The Defense Department inspector general found that Aguto improperly handled classified documents and engaged in the 'overindulgence of alcohol' in separate incidents. In April 2024, he misplaced a tube containing maps classified as 'SECRET' after returning to Germany from Ukraine. The Ukrainian director of train security later recovered the tube on the train.
Aguto also faced allegations related to alcohol consumption. In May 2024, he suffered a concussion from falls after drinking heavily, which incapacitated him for meetings, including one with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Witnesses described Aguto as appearing disheveled and cognitively diminished during the meeting.
The inspector general's report recommended that the Army secretary take appropriate action against Aguto in light of the 'substantiated misconduct.' The incidents occurred around the time the U.S. had committed $50.6 billion worth of security assistance to Ukraine, according to a Pentagon fact sheet released on May 10, 2024.
According to HuffPost, Aguto was traveling abroad in early 2024 as part of a security assistance mission when three anonymous complaints about his behavior prompted an investigation by the Department of Defense’s Office of Inspector General. The OIG’s report determined that Aguto had twice improperly given control of unsecured maps to his staff while traveling by train, ultimately resulting in the documents becoming lost for more than 24 hours in early April 2024.
The report also considered several witnesses’ claims that Aguto had discussed classified information in an unsecured environment in July 2024. The discussion included him sharing 'dispositions of Ukrainian and Russian ground forces, which are classified at the Secret level.' According to HuffPost, these discussions happened in an open-air pavilion outside of an auditorium used for a SAG-U commander’s call.
Aguto relinquished command of SAG-U in August 2024 and retired as a major general that November. The Defense Department and European Command did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment on Tuesday.
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