The Pentagon is pushing back against NBC’s report that Esper ‘prepared resignation letter’

Following the presidential election, the Pentagon is pushing back against a report by NBC News that Defense Secretary Mark Esper has “prepared a resignation letter.”

In a statement released Thursday afternoon, NBC quoted three unnamed “current security officials” as saying that Esper had prepared his letter because he was “one of the long-awaited cabinet officials to be ousted after the election.”

However, the report received a strong response later in the evening from Jonathan Hoffman, an assistant secretary of defense for public affairs.

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“The NBC story is misleading and misleading in many ways,” Hoffman tweeted. “To be clear, Secretary of Defense Esper has no plans to resign and has not been asked to submit his resignation letter.”

“He continues to serve the nation as Secretary of Defense at the behest of the President and has been instrumental in the irreversible implementation of the National Security Strategy,” Hoffman added.

Fox News approached NBC News for comment.

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A senior White House official has previously told Fox News that President Trump plans to remove FBI Director Christopher Ware from office if the president defeats Democratic nominee Joe Biden. The official said Secretary of Defense Mark Esper might also come out, but it was not clear whether he would resign or the president would remove him.

Fox News’ Andrew O’Reilly contributed to the report.