Washington - The U.S. government stopped cyber operations against Russia in February when President Trump was trying to negotiate an end to the Russian-Ukrainian war, confirming then-CBS news coverage and weakening the Department of Defense's denial statements.
"I actually got involved in the whole issue. I just wanted to solve it: It's a day-long pause," Bacon, chairman of the House Armed Services Network subcommittee, said at a hearing on Capitol Hill on Friday. "It's almost what I'm talking about. It's a day-long pause."
In March, several U.S. officials Tell CBS News said Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had issued a directive to the U.S. Cyber Command to suspend cyber operations against Russia, including the most provocative. At that time, the duration of the pause was not yet clear.
In response to reports about the suspension, the Pentagon’s Quick Response Team posted Hegseth on X on March 4 that “had neither cancelled nor delayed any cyber operations against malicious Russian targets nor stood out from that priority.”
Two sources familiar with Hegseth's commands say that pause instructions lack particularity. It is not clear how to explain the order of the plan. Several officials also told CBS News in March that future action-making strategies will never be suspended, and that the U.S. cyber policy toward Russia is "very complete" and remains at the same level, one official said.
Bacon's remarks are the first endorsement of the directive's existence, the record was first reported in February, a cybersecurity news publication.
In sensitive negotiations between countries, it is not uncommon for certain military operations to be suspended in certain military operations. Both the Democratic and Republican governments have stopped acting to prevent US intentions from being misunderstood and maintain diplomatic capacity.
In addition to the Pentagon’s statement on X, the Trump administration has also questioned the matter and continued to deny any pauses.
Asked about the pause of the report, a senior Department of Defense official declined to answer questions from CBS News.
At a House hearing Friday, the Department of Defense's quick response statement was summoned by Army veterans and Democratic Rep. Eugene Vindman, who accused the Pentagon of lying.
"What I want to do is basically point out that the statement that the Department of Defense responded quickly is a complete lie," the Virginia lawmaker said. "At least it's misleading. It's not what the American people deserve, and it's going to be something I intend to follow up when the secretary actually appears."
Pentagon create The DOD Quick Response account will be supervised in February by conservative Podcaster and veteran Graham Allen, who is now the Pentagon’s director of digital media.
The account usually attacks news publications and comments criticizing reports about Heggs and the Department of Defense. Account X omitted context from its statement, touting the increase in U.S. military recruitment between February 2024 and February 2025, although as confirmed by CBS News found, while most of the time during the Biden administration showed improvements in recruitment for most of the time.
Trump administration officials have pledged to run "the most transparent department of defense in history", but so far the Pentagon has hold Just a formal briefing. The Pentagon's official Department of Defense communications usually commits crimes bypassing traditional news media and attacking their reports, rather than regular news participation. The issue to the Pentagon was submitted to the U.S. Cyber Command, which told CBS News on Friday: “We do not comment or discuss cyber intelligence, plans or operations due to operational security issues.”