In a May 18 interview with Politico, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore was asked whether those questioning his personal accomplishments were acting in bad faith.
“I can tell my own story,†Moore said. “I don't need someone else to tell it.â€
A Spotlight on Maryland investigative series has found that, for more than 20 years, Moore has repeatedly told versions of his story that do not match the record.
In a career-advancing 2006 application for a White House Fellowship, critical parts of his submission were knowingly false. Spotlight's review of Moore's résumé, available military records, and related documents found false, misleading, or unsubstantiated claims about his Army service — including the most serious one: that he was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for service in Afghanistan.
It had not been awarded.
Moore controversially received the Bronze Star retroactively in 2024, nearly 19 years later, after being called out by The New York Times in an article that exposed Moore, but also seemingly gave him cover. Yet in his 2006 White House Fellows résumé, Moore represented himself as a Bronze Star recipient while competing for one of the country's most prestigious leadership opportunities.
This was not a casual biography. It was a formal résumé, falsely enhanced and submitted for a federal fellowship designed to place rising leaders in full-time roles alongside senior White House staff and cabinet officials.
The application Moore submitted to the federal government contained multiple false representations of his accomplishments. Under 18 U.S.C. 1001, it is unlawful to knowingly and willfully make materially false statements, or submit false writings, in matters within federal jurisdiction. Moore's résumé did not contain one “honest mistake,†as he has stated. It contained several claims that were knowingly false when submitted, a felony under federal law for which the statute of limitations has expired.
Even Moore's friend, mentor, and military boss, retired Lt. Gen. Michael R. Fenzel, acknowledged the Bronze Star problem. Fenzel told The New York Times that by “the letter of the absolute law,†the Bronze Star should not have been included in Moore's application.
And the Bronze Star was not the only problem. Spotlight identified other military claims that do not match Moore's record, cannot be substantiated, or appear to inflate his military experience while he sought a career-defining opportunity.
This article focuses only on the military claims in Moore's 2006 White House Fellows materials. Problematic non-military entries will be addressed in future reporting. The Washington Free Beacon has also reported significantly on misrepresentations from Moore's résumé during his time at Oxford.
The Bronze Star claim
The most consequential false claim in Moore's résumé was his statement, “For my work, the 82nd Airborne Division have[sic]awarded me the Bronze Star Medal and the Combat Action Badge.â€
Moore knew he did not receive the Bronze Star in 2006 at the end of his Afghanistan deployment. He knew he didn't receive it during his White House Fellowship application process. And he didn't receive it during the years public biographies and interview introductions described him as a Bronze Star recipient, which he never corrected.
This sort of claim could have been pursued by federal prosecutors under the 2005 version of the Stolen Valor Act, which made it a federal offense to falsely represent, verbally or in writing, that one had been awarded “any decoration or medal authorized by Congress for the Armed Forces of the United States.†The act was amended in 2013, leaving out the Bronze Star. Still, many veterans reacting to Moore on social media view this kind of military embellishment as stolen valor.
Moore eventually received the Bronze Star under questionable circumstances — and retroactively — after almost 19 years of intentionally misleading the public about having earned it. Spotlight is preparing an in-depth investigative report revealing how Moore obtained the Bronze Star in 2024.
Moore said he included the Bronze Star because Fenzel told him it had been approved and advised him to add it to his White House résumé. Yet in an online statement on his military record, Moore said, “Towards the end of my deployment, I was disappointed to learn that I hadn't received the Bronze Star,†indicating he may have been disapproved for the medal before leaving Afghanistan, which puts daylight between his and Fenzel's accounts.
The inconsistency defines the issue.
It also raises questions. If Fenzel, as deputy brigade commander, saw Moore's completed Bronze Star packet with all approving signatures, as he told The New York Times in 2024, why did he not arrange a ceremony and present the medal while still in the combat theater, as is Army custom?
Even accepting Moore's claim that he made an “honest mistake,†he acknowledged he knew the Bronze Star had not been awarded before leaving Afghanistan. Spotlight asked Moore whether he corrected his résumé with the White House Fellows Selection Commission — and, if so, whether he could provide evidence of that.
Moore has continuously refused to answer, leaving one to wonder: If he knew he hadn't received the Bronze Star, why didn't he correct his resume with the White House?
The Bronze Star is among the most recognizable military awards associated with combat-zone service. For a young Army officer applying to a highly competitive fellowship, claiming a Bronze Star Medal would have strengthened his application and burnished his image as a leader.
Retired Army Maj. Larry Moores, a member of the U.S. Army Ranger Hall of Fame and recipient of the Silver Star Medal for valor during the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu, made famous in the movie “Black Hawk Down,†put the issue plainly.
“Serving with distinction in a combat zone and being the recipient of a Bronze Star Medal are two completely different things,†Moores wrote in a 2024 LinkedIn post. “If Gov. Moore stated in an application for a White House Fellowship and political campaigns that he was the recipient of a Bronze Star that he was never awarded, he is misrepresenting his military service.â€
Maj. Moores also rejected Moore's explanation that Fenzel urged him to include the award.
“I don't buy the ‘urging of his superiors' argument as acceptable either,†Moores wrote. “If any of my superiors urged me to wear an award on my uniform that I did not have orders for, I would tell them no If any of my superiors asked me to write about an award I did not receive on an application to benefit myself, I would tell them no.â€
That is the standard, according to Maj. Moores, that Moore, and apparently his superior, Fenzel, failed to meet.
The Combat Action Badge
Moore's 2006 White House Fellows résumé also stated that he had received the Combat Action Badge, or “CAB†in Army lingo.
That claim raises questions of timing and documentation.
White House Fellows applications were due Feb. 1, 2006. The orders for Moore's CAB are dated May 1, 2006 — three months later.
The timing matters. A résumé is not supposed to list what an applicant hopes to receive, expects to receive, or believes may later be approved. It is supposed to list what the applicant has actually earned, and Moore had not yet been approved for the CAB.
Moore says he was eventually awarded the badge. His staff provided orders approving it to a small group of selectively invited national journalists at his retroactive Bronze Star pinning ceremony in Annapolis on Dec. 23, 2024. No local journalists were invited.
Moore's staff claimed the orders did not make it into his official record because his first name was misspelled as “Wesley†instead of “Westley.†That explanation is suspect. In 2006, primary identifying fields for military orders would also have included last name and Social Security number. A misspelled first name alone does not explain why an approved badge failed to make it into a soldier's record.
The documentation raises more concerns. The CAB orders were once downloadable from a State of Maryland webpage, with Moore's statement about his military career and the Bronze Star controversy. That page still exists, but the orders were removed shortly before Spotlight began its investigative series on Moore's time in the Army.
Also previously available for download and now removed were Moore's Afghanistan deployment DD Form 214 and a Jun. 30, 2014, letter from the National Archives responding to Moore's request that his military awards and decorations be confirmed and reissued.
That 2014 letter did not list the CAB among Moore's approved awards or badges. According to the National Archives, the information came from Army Human Resources Command.
Also notable, when the Army issued a DD Form 215 to correct Moore's DD Form 214 and add the Bronze Star Medal presented in 2024, it did not add the Combat Action Badge — despite Moore's staff later producing CAB orders at the presentation ceremony they say were valid.
This does not prove Moore did not earn the badge. But it means that as late as 2014, the CAB was not reflected in his official Army record, and it may still not be today. Validation of his CAB was not among the records the Army released in response to Spotlight's FOIA requests.
Spotlight has filed a specific FOIA request with the Army seeking to verify the CAB's legitimacy.
The Afghanistan deployment timeline
Moore's résumé also categorically inflates the timeframe of his Afghanistan deployment.
The résumé presented his Afghanistan service as running from July 2005 to April 2006 — 10 months. But according to Army records, Moore deployed to Afghanistan from Aug. 15, 2005, to March 14, 2006 — six months and 27 days.
Records also indicate Moore was out of Afghanistan on emergency leave for about 30 days, from roughly Dec. 10, 2005, to Jan. 10, 2006.
None of that diminishes the fact that Moore deployed. But it matters when an Army officer applying for a celebrated White House Fellowship presents his service as longer or more substantial than the record supports.
The Military Police Officer Basic Course
Moore's résumé also noted his attendance at the U.S. Army Military Police Officer Basic Course at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri — the course finally qualifying him to deploy more than seven years after his commissioning.
The résumé states Moore graduated in March 2005. Army records show his report date for the 18-week course was Feb. 21, 2005, and his graduation was June 14, 2005 — less than two months before he mobilized as an Army reservist for Afghanistan.
The issue is not whether Moore completed the course. It is whether his résumé presented the timing of his qualifications in a way that made his military record appear cleaner, longer, or more impressive than the documentation supports.
The “Top Leadership Awardâ€
The same résumé entry states that Moore earned the “Top Leadership Award†at the M.P. Officer Basic Course from a class of 45 students.
Spotlight asked the Army for records substantiating that claim. The Army was unable to support Moore's declaration.
In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, the Army stated: “After consultation with the Military Police Officer Basic Course Schoolhouse, there is no record/documentation of CPT Moore being awarded the Leadership Award during MP Officer Basic Course 3-05.â€
This is confirmation from the Army that this statement in Moore's résumé is false.
A Top Leadership Award is precisely the kind of résumé entry that can separate one applicant from another. The Army has definitively stated Moore did not receive the award. If Moore can disprove that, he should produce proof. Otherwise, the conclusion is obvious.
Moore continually refuses to address this and other simple questions.
Veterans are asking the obvious questions
The criticism has not come only from political opponents or partisan observers. Moore's military story has drawn concern from veterans, who understand that awards, badges, deployment dates, and combat claims are documented facts, not vague memories.
Retired Maj. Larry Moores' criticism carries particular weight because it comes from a combat veteran decorated for valor. His point was direct: Serving honorably in a combat zone and claiming receipt of a specific military award are not the same thing.
Other veterans have raised similar concerns about Moore's shifting military story and lack of transparency.
After Spotlight reported on Moore's claims about experiencing direct-fire combat, Navy veteran Robert Carona wrote on social media, “As a Veteran of 5 deployments in 4 years I know exactly where I was and who I was with. I know what awards/medals I received. You don't forget any of that I can assure you.â€
Former Army intelligence officer Victor Salazar also questioned Moore's account, writing on social media, “As a former military officer this lack of transparency is very telling. I believe he is claiming more credit than maybe he deservedI am very much calling him out on his service and his integrity[is]suspect.â€
Those comments capture why Moore's 2006 résumé matters. This is not about diminishing his service. It is about whether he inflated that service while competing for a career-defining fellowship — and whether he corrected the record knowing that important claims in his résumé were false.
The 2006-2007 White House Fellowship placed Moore inside an elite national leadership network. It gave him access, credibility, and proximity to power.
That makes the accuracy of the résumé more important, not less.
If Moore listed awards he had not received, overstated deployment dates, claimed honors the Army says he did not earn, and failed to correct the record, then the issue is not lost paperwork.
It is judgment.
It is integrity.
And Spotlight's investigation shows it is a pattern.
Moore says he can tell his own story. But when he told his story to the White House Fellows program in 2006, the version he presented was full of blatant falsehoods.
Spotlight has asked Governor Moore in multiple letters and emails to provide evidence and documentation to refute its reporting. Moore has consistently refused to acknowledge our request or provide any answers.
Drew Sullins can be reached at . Spotlight on Maryland is a joint venture by FOX45 News, The Baltimore Sun and WJLA in Washington, D.C. Send story tips to or call our hotline at . Follow us on X at @spotlightMDNews, and on Instagram and Facebook at Spotlight on Maryland.
