CNN — 

Last month, after news broke that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was using Signal to discuss sensitive military operations in violation of Pentagon policy, one of his closest military aides made an unusual inquiry to the Defense Department’s chief information officer: Would they grant an exception so Hegseth could keep using Signal freely?

The question came from Col. Ricky Buria, a former aide to previous Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin who has rapidly established himself as a key member of Hegseth’s inner circle, multiple people familiar with the matter told CNN. The Signal inquiry raised eyebrows among other senior Pentagon officials, who wondered whether the request was appropriate — especially from a uniformed officer, rather than Hegseth’s civilian chief of staff.

Weeks earlier, before The Atlantic revealed that Hegseth had been using the app to discuss detailed military plans, Buria had pushed to get Hegseth an extra desktop computer in his office that he could use Signal on, ostensibly for personal communications so he could more easily text friends and family from the Pentagon, the sources said.

The Secretary’s office is considered a secure space, where cell phones are not typically permitted. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency recommends that highly targeted individuals use Signal, but DoD policy says Signal is “NOT authorized to access, transmit, process non-public DoD information.” It notes that requests for exceptions to that policy can be submitted to the chief information officer.

It is not clear whether Hegseth was ever given an exception to use Signal freely, or if he has continued to use it for sensitive military planning in the fallout of the Signalgate episode.

In a statement to CNN, Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said, “The Secretary of Defense’s use of communications systems and channels is classified. However, we can confirm that the Secretary has never used and does not currently use Signal on his government computer.”

Parnell did not comment on why Hegseth had another computer set up in his office that Signal was installed on.

Buria, a career Marine with multiple combat deployments who served as both Austin and Hegseth’s junior military assistant, has for months been straddling the line between military aide and civilian adviser, the sources said. And last week, he submitted his retirement papers to the Marine Corps, a Marine spokesperson confirmed.

On Thursday morning, Buria was at the Pentagon in civilian clothing and greeted the NATO Secretary General before accompanying him, Hegseth, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Pentagon’s head of policy into a meeting room.

Buria did not respond to repeated requests for comment about his increasingly influential position in Hegseth’s inner circle, including his role in helping to facilitate Hegseth’s use of Signal inside the Pentagon.

Buria’s plan is to stay at the Pentagon, but as a senior civilian adviser to Hegseth, the sources said. Hegseth is even considering appointing Buria as his new chief of staff, now that his former chief of staff Joe Kasper is moving into a new role at the department, the sources added.

Buria’s transition from military assistant to senior adviser was extremely unusual, particularly since he worked so closely with Austin, according to officials that served in the Biden and second Trump administration. And Hegseth moved quickly to root out other “holdover” military officials upon taking office, including former Joint Chiefs Chairman CQ Brown; former Air Force vice chairman Gen. Jim Slife; former Chief of Naval Operations Lisa Franchetti; and Jen Short, a three-star general who was appointed senior military assistant under Austin.

Underscoring the trust Hegseth placed in him, Buria, not even a general officer, filled the crucial senior military assistant role on an acting basis, current and former officials said. The SMA, which is a three-star position that requires Senate confirmation, serves as both the chief military point of contact for the secretary and as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s representative to the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

The sources all said that Buria’s rise appears to largely be a function of how much Hegseth has narrowed his inner circle, as he has become increasingly paranoid about leaks and concerned about being undermined. After firing two of his most senior advisers last week and accusing them of leaking, Hegseth now relies primarily on his wife Jennifer, Buria, and his lawyer for counsel, the sources said.

Hegseth also likes Buria’s “yes, sir” attitude, said one defense official who has observed their interactions.

“He likes that Ricky does what he asks and gets him what he needs,” the official said.

Under Secretary Austin, Buria was “cool, calm, collected, never got ruffled, and had a good attitude,” a former senior Pentagon official in the Biden administration told CNN, adding that he was “very good and capable.” But he was also essentially a “body man” for Austin — carrying his bags and appearing only in the background of official photos, if at all.

Under Hegseth, however, Buria has in a few short months become one of Hegseth’s most trusted advisers and friends.

Buria has routine access to Hegseth’s personal and government phones, multiple people familiar with the matter told CNN, and is often seen working out with the secretary in photos posted on X. He has even started sitting at the table with foreign leaders, most recently during official meetings in Panama and with El Salvador’s defense minister at the Pentagon. He also appeared in a photo laughing with Elon Musk when he visited the Pentagon earlier this month.

Buria never did anything of the sort while serving in the same role for Austin, the former senior Pentagon official said.

“He would never sit in on bilats or meetings or anything like that, like he is now,” the former official said, referring to official bilateral meetings between the secretary and his counterparts.

Current and former officials have also raised questions about whether Buria is experienced enough to serve as Hegseth’s chief of staff — and whether the White House would accept that, given Buria’s history working under Austin and Trump’s push to root out Biden-era “holdovers” from his administration.

“It’s certainly an unlikely path, to move from the military assistant to a political appointee,” said a second former senior DOD official. “I can’t think of another case.”

It could be a tough adjustment, the first former senior official said.

“You need someone with a political background who understands the political context, someone who can call up a four-star and yell at them for not being on message or not doing things the right way,” this person added. “I think that’s the biggest concern … do we really think [CENTCOM Commander] Erik Kurilla is going to take Ricky seriously, as a recently retired colonel?”

A third former senior DOD official who served under Austin agreed, saying the chief of staff has to be comfortable holding their own against career political operators who are working at senior levels of other government agencies.

As for his work with Austin, the second former senior DoD official emphasized that the military services — in Buria’s case, the Marine Corps — put forward their rising-star officers for the job of junior military assistant.

The officers themselves shouldn’t be considered political, and Buria never appeared to be, this former official said. While he seemed ambitious, this person added, there was “no indication he would be interested in leaving the military service and becoming a Trump political appointee.”

In fact, multiple sources told CNN that Buria was on the fast-track to becoming a general officer within the Marine Corps, which has made his decision to leave uniform all the more bewildering to those who have worked alongside him.

As he has risen in Hegseth’s inner circle, Buria has gotten bolder in advising Hegseth on political and policy matters, the current defense official and a former official said. And he has sometimes ruffled feathers in the way he’s spoken to more senior military officers, including at least two combatant commanders, the sources added.

“He’s gotten far too casual with them, and presents too unprofessionally,” said the current official.

In a sign of his increasingly political role, Buria joined X in January, and three days ago began regularly reposting Trump, Hegseth, and Vance, as well as posts from DoD’s rapid response account criticizing the media coverage of Hegseth — including one calling NPR a “fake news propaganda machine.”