Milley in a statement confirmed that book anecdotes about secret phone calls are true, but couched them as normal procedure.
As the embattled Gen. Mark Milley took a defiant tone regarding reports that he surreptitiously tried to circumvent the authority of his then-commander-in-chief, President Donald Trump, critics increasingly demanded his resignation while the White House offered him full support.
Milley's alleged actions include making secret calls to the top military officer in Beijing, and holding a clandestine gathering of military officers to demand that they only obey command orders that came through Milley, according to the authors of a forthcoming book.
Milley in a statement confirmed that the anecdotes in the book are true, but couched them as normal procedure - and signaled that he plans to remain in office.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin "Has full trust and confidence in Chairman Milley and the job that he's doing," spokesman John Kirby told reporters in an afternoon briefing.
"We have provisions for that as spelled out in the U.S. Constitution, namely that the Cabinet would remove him under the 25th Amendment. But instead of doing that, he ran his own independent operation." Some within the Pentagon interpret the "I'm in command" affirmation meeting as meaning Milley wanted to make sure he wasn't being marginalized, the contract officer said.
Milley's spokesman Butler said that Milley's calls were acceptable standard procedure.
"All calls from the Chairman to his counterparts, including those reported, are staffed, coordinated and communicated with the Department of Defense and the interagency." Former Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, who would have led the Pentagon when Milley made the January call, said he 'did not and would not ever authorize' the general to have the secret calls.
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