Listen, we’ve all had a few too many to drink at a dinner party and forgotten something on a train. It happens to the best of us. It just so happens that usually, we aren’t U.S. Army Major Generals and the things we leave behind aren’t classified documents. Unfortunately for Antonio Aguto, that’s exactly the predicament he found himself in April of 2024.
Maj. Gen. Aguto, who oversaw the command that coordinated, trained and equipped Ukraine’s military (read: had a very important job), accidentally left a tube of classified maps on a train to Poland for more than 24 hours thanks to an “overindulgence” in alcohol during a dinner in Ukraine, according to The Hill. At the very least, there was no indication that the classified information was compromised, CBS News reports. A 56-page report from the Department of Defense’s Inspector General found that the now-retired two-star general brought the classified maps during a trip from Germany to Ukraine in late March of 2024 and assigned control of them to his staff. The thing is, the IG couldn’t determine who was actually in control of those maps during Aguto’s travels.
Here’s what The Hill says:
“We found insufficient evidence to determine who had control of the classified maps once the travelers boarded the train for the return trip,” the watchdog said in the report, adding that travelers left the maps in the train when they arrived back in Poland on April 4, 2024, and the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine recovered the unattended documents a day later.
When he got back to Wiesbaden, Aguto was told by his executive officer that the tube was gone. Classified information is typically transported via courier; it was not ordered that time, the report said.
“MG Aguto took responsibility for this incident,” the report said.
The inspector general’s office interviewed Aguto and 33 other witnesses as part of its investigation following three anonymous complaints between May 20 and 24 of 2024. It also spoke with State Department personnel who were familiar with what had happened, while also reviewing classified and unclassified emails, medical records and official travel records along a litany of other documents.
He goofed up
The report says Aguto realized he misplaced the tube either that night or the morning after, and he immediately notified the U.S. embassy in Ukraine, according to CBS News. After hearing the documents were missing, the Ukrainian director of train security found the tube on the train and brought it back to the embassy.
While the documents don’t appear to have been compromised, the State Department still found him at fault, writing, “those documents were left on the train, unsecured, and later recovered by Ukrainian nationals.”
Clearly, not learning his lesson, a month later, Aguto fell and got a concussion after drinking had incapacitated him for meetings, including one with then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Here’s what CBS News says:
The evening before the meetings, Aguto went out to dinner in Kyiv just after 5:00 p.m. and didn’t return until after 11:00 p.m. At around 10:00 p.m., an aide setting up his communications equipment asked the aide with Aguto how long they’d be, and the aide texted, “We are still going strong… I don’t think he is going to check anything. Have it ready but he’s too drunk.”
Once he returned to his room, Aguto suddenly “lost his balance” and fell backward, according to one of the witnesses, striking the back of his head on the wall. He fell two more times over the course of the next 24 hours and was acting “slow” enough to warrant medical consultations.
Aguto had a CT scan and an EKG at the local hospital and received a concussion diagnosis.
The inspector general stopped short of substantiating allegations that Aguto was drunk on the job, but the report did concede that he was unable to perform his duties because of the concussion.
Dawg, I’m sorry, but if you’re in charge of something this important, maybe cut down on the drinking. Lock in a little bit, ya know? The IG seems to agree, recommending the Army secretary take appropriate action against Aguto in light of his “substantial misconduct” as detailed in the report. There’s no word on exactly what that may be just yet.
