Drunk general showed up disheveled to meeting after losing classified maps: report

Antonio Aguto, a retired soldier who in 2024 served as an army major general, is accused in a recent Military Times report of being inappropriately drunk while serving — and potentially jeopardizing global security in the process.

Citing a recent report from the Department of Defense Inspector General’s office, the Times reported that “the two-star head of the command responsible for coordinating support for Ukraine left a tube of classified maps behind on a train in Europe, losing control of the sensitive material for 24 hours.” Aguto was diagnosed with a concussion following the night of intoxication at a Kyiv social event.

Although the report described events from the spring and summer of 2024, it was only recently released… yet those events allegedly cover a pattern of behavior that transcends a mere night of friendly socializing. Aguto is accused of contributing to a toxic work environment in his office even before the night of drunkenness, and then on May 13, 2024 consuming two 500 ml bottles of chacha, a Georgian brandy containing 40-50% alcohol. He woke up the next day with bruising on his head and remaining disoriented and incoherent.

“As he met staff in the hotel lobby ahead of a morning meeting with then-Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, witnesses reported Aguto acting lethargic and ‘not himself,’ and staff said they suggested he cancel the meeting,” the Times reported. “En route to the U.S. Embassy and running late, Aguto fell again, hitting his jaw on the concrete and tearing his jacket. Aguto showed up to the meeting looking ‘completely disheveled’ and ‘out of it,’ according to the regional security officer. The U.S. ambassador to Ukraine reported worrying that Aguto had been drugged, according to the IG, and others reported him slurring words and acting ‘cognitively diminished.’”

It was later determined that Aguto had misplaced a set of maps “classified Secret, hand-carried in a cylindrical tube due to their size. While a witness reported seeing a noncommissioned officer in the travel party carry the map tube onto the train, nobody saw it being taken off. Aguto would only be notified by his executive officer that the map tube was missing after he had returned to headquarters in Wiesbaden, according to the investigation,” the Times reported. “It was found on the train the next day and returned, apparently untouched, via staff with U.S. Embassy Ukraine.”

Aguto is not the only powerful person in the US government to be accused of intoxication on the job. In 2025 Rep. Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.) asked whether Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's decision to use Signal to discuss details of an airstrike on Houthi rebels in Yemen may have been influenced by his lengthy past history of alleged workplace intoxication.

"To your knowledge, do you know whether Pete Hegseth had been drinking before he leaked classified information?" Gomez asked Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe at the time.

“You know, no, I’m going to answer that,” Ratcliffe replied. “I think that’s an offensive line of questioning. The answer is no.”

Similarly, in January President Donald Trump’s Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-Deremer was accused of drinking alcohol in her office as well as having an inappropriate relationship with an unnamed male staffer (Chavez-Deremer is married). Similar to the accusation of contributing to toxicity against Aguto and others in the military, Chavez-Deremer was accused of being a "boss from hell” by allegedly instructing employees to run personal errands and perform other chores unrelated to their official responsibilities.