Former acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, who briefly led the Pentagon from late 2020 until January 2021, said he did not authorize an alleged phone call between Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and his Chinese Communist Party counterpart.
“The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the highest-ranking military officer whose sole role is providing military-specific advice to the president, and by law is prohibited from exercising executive authority to command forces,” Miller said in a statement to Fox News, referring to allegations contained in a forthcoming Bob Woodward book that Milley made two secret phone calls to Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People’s Liberation Army in late October 2020 and two days after the Jan. 6 Capitol breach, respectively.
