A long-awaited Pentagon report has determined that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth breached departmental policies by sharing secret intelligence in a Signal messaging chat, according to a person briefed on the findings.
Details of the Event
The chat group in dispute included particulars about a planned air attack in Yemen targeting Houthi militants. This discussion came to light after a reporter for the Atlantic was added as a member.
Other officials in the chat allegedly included Senator JD Vance, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and former security advisor Mike Waltz. The investigation did not examine the conduct of Hegseth, as the other officials do not work at the Department of Defense.
Signal is a publicly available messaging app that was not approved for transmitting classified information.
Potential Risk to Forces
The inspector general's report determined that the information circulated by Hegseth was secret and could have endangered the lives of US troops if it had been obtained by a foreign enemy force.
Notably, the document acknowledged that Hegseth had the ability to downgrade the information he distributed, though it was unclear whether he formally did so.
Secretary's Response
The source said that Hegseth declined an interview by the inspector general. Instead, he provided a short written response.
In his response, Hegseth claimed he only shared details that would not have endangered personnel or jeopardized the operation. He added that he had the right to declassify material and viewed the inspector general to be partisan.
Future Actions
The completed report has been shared with Congress. An unclassified version is anticipated to be made public in the coming days.
