Unpacking claim US Army 'nuclear chief' Andrew Hugg revealed secrets to undercover reporter

In April 2026, a rumor spread online that a "top nuclear chief" of the U.S. Army had revealed government secrets on camera to an undercover reporter.

The supposed reporter allegedly asked the military leader questions about his work during a date and surreptitiously filmed his responses. 

One X post claimed the nuclear chief had revealed a "plot to assassinate [Iran's] new Supreme Leader" and an Army chemist's incident with a "nerve agent," among other supposedly classified information (archived):

Snopes readers also emailed us and searched our website to verify whether the rumor was true. 

The claim stemmed from a video report by the Citizen Journalism Foundation, an organization led by controversial journalist and conservative activist James O'Keefe. He previously helmed Project Veritas, a right-wing media organization whose sensational reports Snopes has previously covered.

On April 21, 2026, O'Keefe shared a video on X purporting to show a man who was seemingly unaware someone was filming him talking in a busy bar or restaurant. 

While the video showed no signs of being altered apart from the addition of titles, Snopes could not independently verify the central allegations without confirmation from the Army, other official sources, or the undercover reporter supposedly involved. As such, we've left the claim unrated until further information emerges.

To investigate this rumor, we searched for evidence from reputable sources. As of this writing, searches on Google and Bing yielded no results for credible news outlets reporting the story, which likely would have been the case if it had been confirmed.

In his X post, O'Keefe identified the man as Andrew Hugg, "chief of chemical nuclear surety," and said he was "casually revealing sensitive information to a stranger in a public restaurant" (archived):

The post read, in part:

BREAKING NEWS: Top U.S. Nuclear Chief Caught LEAKING Sensitive National Security Information to Stranger, Reveals Army Chemist Was Exposed to U.S. Chemical Nerve Agent, Confirms U.S. Strike Killed Children in Iran, Discloses U.S. Plans to 'Kill Iran's New Supreme Leader'

"If he [Mojtaba Khamenei] doesn't change his ways, yeah, they're [United States] going to kill him." 

The post included a video of the man with his alleged name and title —  "Branch chief, Nuclear and Chemical Surety, U.S. Department of the Army" —  in bright yellow letters.

We reached out to O'Keefe requesting access to the unedited video and contact information for the woman who acted as the supposed undercover reporter. We also contacted the U.S. Army to verify that Hugg is the man in the video and to confirm whether the military employs him. Lastly, we emailed the man O'Keefe identified as being in the video and await a response.  

O'Keefe also shared screenshots of what he claimed was the same man's since-deleted LinkedIn profile, which also identified him as a branch chief of nuclear and chemical surety in the U.S. Army (archived): 

The LinkedIn screenshot purported to show Hugg's job description, which read, in part:

Leads the Chemical and Nuclear Surety Branch of the U.S. Army G-3/5/7 Division at HQDA, Pentagon. Right away jumped into an overdue draft of AR 50-5, Army Nuclear Surety.

"HQDA" stands for "Heaquarters, Department of the Army." The G-3/5/7 division answers to the deputy chief of staff for operations, plans and training. Its duties include Army safety and preparedness. 

A profile for an apparent Army employee named Andrew Hugg indeed existed until recently on LinkedIn. A Google search for the keywords "andrew hugg army linkedin" showed the search engine had yet to clear its cache to catch up with the deletion of the LinkedIn profile:

(Google Search)

Because Snopes could not access the LinkedIn profile at the time of publication, we were unable to determine whether it belonged to the man shown in the video. As of this writing, it was also unclear when the LinkedIn profile had been deleted. 

On April 22, 2026, O'Keefe said in an Instagram post that Army spokesperson Cynthia Smith told him Hugg was placed on administrative leave — a temporary leave of absence during which the employee keeps both pay and benefits — pending an investigation (archived):

O'Keefe's team shared with Snopes a screenshot of what they said was an email from Smith about Hugg being placed on leave. We sent it to Smith, asking her to confirm the screenshot authentically showed her emailed statement to O'Keefe and his employees. We will update this report should she respond.

For further reading, in September 2025, Snopes investigated O'Keefe's claim that a Department of Justice staffer said the agency would "redact every Republican" from files related to the case of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.