Just hours before leaving the Oval Office, former President Joe Biden issued a pre-emptive pardon for retired Gen. Mark Milley, citing the possibility that President Donald Trump might seek "revenge" on the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It turns out the pardon was not enough to spare Milley from professional consequence over his past actions and subversion.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth revoked Milley's security detail and security clearance on Tuesday and has also ordered the Pentagon's inspector general to launch a probe into the retired general's actions, Pentagon spokesperson John Ullyot confirmed this week to multiple publications.

Ullyot noted that Hegseth will determine whether Milley should receive a demotion after considering the findings of the inquiry into the facts and circumstances surrounding his conduct. Officials told Fox News that the four-star general could ultimately lose a star based on his efforts to "undermine the chain of command" during Trump's first term.

While previously serving as Trump's most senior uniformed adviser, Milley telephoned his communist Chinese counterpart, communist Gen. Li Zuocheng, on two occasions — four days before the 2020 election and on Jan. 8, 2021 — to reassure Zuocheng that he would provide him with actionable warnings should his commander in chief decide to attack.

When testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee in September 2021, Milley defended his apparent vow to neutralize the strategic advantage of a possible American surprise attack for the benefit of an adversarial nation that he had elsewhere admitted was "the greatest geopolitical challenge to the United States." In his remarks, Milley characterized his circumvention of presidential authority as an effort to "manage crisis and prevent war between great powers armed with nuclear weapons."

In a 2023 Truth Social post that primarily focused on Milley's central role in the Biden administration's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, Trump noted:

This guy turned out to be a Woke train wreck who, if the Fake News reporting is correct, was actually dealing with China to give them a heads up on the thinking of the President of the United States. This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH! A war between China and the United States could have been the result of this treasonous act.

"Undermining the chain of command is corrosive to our national security, and restoring accountability is a priority for the Defense Department under President Trump’s leadership," Joe Kasper, Hegseth's chief of staff, said in a statement Tuesday.

Mollie Halpern, a spokeswoman for the acting DOD inspector general, told the New York Times, "We have received the [inquiry] request and we are reviewing it."

Although Milley enraged Trump and other elements of the new administration by privately communicating with adversaries,downplaying communist spy aircraft over the U.S., and overseeing the deadly Afghanistan withdrawal, he certainly did himself no favors with his various personal attacks on the 47th president.

Milley, whose new chairman portrait was removed from the Pentagon last week and whose Army chief of staff portrait may soon be taken down, previously called Trump a "wannabe dictator"; is quoted in Bob Woodward's book "War" as calling Trump "fascist to the core" and the "most dangerous person to this country"; and reportedly told his staff that instead of submitting a sanctimonious resignation letter in June 2020, he would "just fight him."

"The ghost of General Milley shouldn't haunt the Pentagon any more, nor should it haunt the armed forces," a senior defense official told the Washington Post. "This is all about accountability for General Milley."

The Post indicated that Milley could not be reached for comment.

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