The senior legal counsel to the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — the principal military adviser to President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth — is stepping down nearly a year before his term is over, the latest in an exodus of the military’s top leaders and lawyers over the last 18 months.
Brig. Gen. Eric Widmar told ProPublica he did not take his decision to retire lightly and that he did so “for personal reasons.”
“Earlier this year, my wife and I reflected on the demands of this role, which have required me to live apart from my wife for the past two years and created additional challenges for me and my family,” Widmar said in an emailed statement. “After careful consideration, I decided it was time to place my family at the center of my life and focus on our next chapter together.”
Widmar’s departure follows those of Gen. Chris “C.D.” Donahue, head of Army forces in Europe and Africa, earlier this month, about halfway through the typical term; Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George in April, about a year and a half short of the customary four-year term; and Admiral Alvin Holsey, who retired with two years remaining in his term late last year as the leader of Southern Command, which is overseeing the controversial drone strikes on boats in the Caribbean. Widmar’s exit also follows Hegseth’s firings of top lawyers for the Army, Air Force and Navy last year.
“A person in that position is a rising star,” said one senior ranking former judge advocate, a military attorney, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisal. “He’s certainly high-ranking in the legal community and well-thought-of and trusted. It’s a pretty important job.”
Military experts and current and former senior ranking military officials called Widmar’s early retirement from such a vaunted post a marked departure from military precedent and said it was especially concerning as part of a pattern of well-respected senior leadership exiting under Hegseth with little explanation. Uniformed military leadership, particularly legal advisers, generally remain in place across administrations to preserve the military’s commitment to nonpartisan professionalism.
“That is centuries of high-priced talent that are being cashiered without any explanation for why their service was untenable,” said Kori Schake, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based think tank. “It creates a command climate in which people are hesitant to take initiative. And that’s how countries lose wars.”
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Dan Caine, said in a statement that Widmar “is deeply respected and admired by all” and thanked him for his “remarkable” service. “We will miss his legal counsel, incredible expertise and experience, and his understanding of our responsibility to always speak truth to power.”
The Pentagon did not respond to a request for comment from Hegseth.
Experts on military personnel matters as well as current and former senior ranking officers say the departures raise serious questions that Congress ought to be asking of all key leaders leaving in the current environment.
“What is striking is how far Congress has let Hegseth go in shaping the force without demanding a clear explanation of what he’s doing,” said Peter Feaver, a professor of political science at Duke University who has long taught senior ranking officers the importance of not using retirement or resignation to stir public controversy.
A West Point graduate who advised operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Widmar departs after more than 28 years in the service. Prior to his most recent role, he was staff judge advocate for Central Command in support of U.S. interests across the Middle East and Asia.
The Senate confirmed Widmar as legal counsel to the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2024. In an announcement at the time, the Army’s then-top lawyer, Lt. Gen. Joseph Berger III, praised his “strategic vision and moral courage.”
Berger has since been fired by Hegseth.