Records from the Department of Defense of calendar entries for former Acting Secretary of the Army and current Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. These records contain calendar entries from November 19, 2017, to June 29, 2019, during Esper’s tenure as secretary of the Army.

In these records: 

April 16, 2018: Esper had plans for a “CEO Dinner” with the defense corporation Raytheon Company in the Patriot Room of the Pentagon. 

Prior to joining the Defense Department, Esper was a longtime lobbyist for Raytheon, where he made $1.52 million during his last year at the job. During his defense secretary confirmation hearing in 2019, Esper stated he would not recuse himself from matters concerning Raytheon, despite ethics concerns raised by senators about his ties to the company.

On July 15, 2019, Esper sent a letter to the Office of Government Ethics stating that he would continue participating in Raytheon’s deferred compensation plan — a plan valued between $1 million and $5 million with payouts beginning in November 2022 — if confirmed as secretary. Esper was confirmed as secretary of defense on July 23, 2019.