Pentagon Panel Sued Over Secrecy and Defense Ties

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Public Citizen and the Project On Government Oversight sued Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Defense Department Technology Chief Emil Michael, challenging how the Pentagon created and runs Project Meridian. The groups say the department shut the public out of a committee advising it on future weapons and military technology, and they’re asking a federal judge to halt the project until it follows the law.

“When we heard about this committee being proposed, we were just like, ‘Why isn't it running under normal Federal Advisory Committee Act rules?’” said Scott Amey, POGO's general counsel. The lawsuit seeks to make the department preserve and publicly disclose committee records, and to postpone meetings or other business until the project complies.

A committee behind closed doors

Hegseth announced Project Meridian in his “State of the Force” address to Defense Department personnel at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia on Sept. 30. He said the project would “study the battlefields of the future, identify which weapons and technologies warfighters will need to harness to dominate in these environments and propose actionable solutions to start developing, testing and fielding these capabilities.”

Hegseth said Michael would oversee the project, with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, technology entrepreneur Elon Musk and Anduril founder Palmer Luckey leading it. Musk and Luckey were described as major defense contractors. The panel first met behind closed doors on the day it was announced, then held a second meeting on Oct. 1.

The watchdog groups allege the Defense Department barred public participation, failed to publish notice of the panel's creation in the Federal Register and did not provide written justification for closing meetings. They also say the department has not shown that the project retains records. Those are allegations in the lawsuit, which asks the court to find the committee's establishment and operation unlawful under the Federal Advisory Committee Act and Administrative Procedure Act.

Private interests at the table

The groups say 19 of the committee's 21 members work in the private sector, and many have significant financial interests in the panel's findings. They say members with purported technical expertise have substantial financial interests in the proliferation and deployment of advanced military assets the project will advise the department about. Those members, the groups allege, also depend on maintaining Defense Department support to continue receiving agency funding.

The committee includes Safra Catz, executive vice chair of the Oracle board of directors; Rick Smith, chief executive officer of Axon Tech; and Bob Smith, a member of the board of Parsons Corporation. SpaceX had received more than $8 billion in defense contracts in 2026 alone, while Luckey's company had secured approximately $25 billion in defense contracts.

The Defense Department commissioned MITRE, a nonprofit company that manages federally funded research, to manage Project Meridian. Amey said the department and MITRE were presenting the work as a contractor-like service involving a survey or study, but he argued that the memo creating the project described a committee. The groups also allege Hegseth's memo lacked conflict-of-interest provisions and that the department failed to ensure the committee's advice would not be improperly influenced by the department or special interests, as the law requires.

A legal challenge, not a seat at the table

POGO says it tried to join the process before suing. Amey said the organization sent Hegseth and Michael a letter the previous week asking for a seat on the panel, but received no response. He said the preferred outcome would be to slow the project and make it follow federal law.

Donald K. Sherman, president of CREW, said: “The Federal Advisory Committee Act sets clear requirements about transparency and avoiding conflicts of interest, and Project Meridian must either comply or stop operating.” The groups are asking the judge to require the Defense Department to preserve and disclose committee records and pause the panel's business until it complies. For now, the dispute is over who gets access to the decisions—and whether a panel dominated by private-sector members can advise the department without the public protections the groups say federal law demands.