Pentagon Report Concludes Defense Secretary Placed Military Personnel in Danger with Messaging App Chat.
A highly anticipated Pentagon report has concluded that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth breached departmental policies by sharing secret information in a private Signal group, according to a person briefed on the findings.
Particulars of the Event
The chat group in question included details about a scheduled airstrike in Yemen against Houthi militants. This discussion came to light after a reporter for the Atlantic was added as a member.
Other officials in the group reportedly included JD Vance, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and former security advisor Mike Waltz. The investigation did not examine the actions of Hegseth, as the other participants do not work at the Department of Defense.
Signal is a commercially offered communication application that was not authorized for handling sensitive material.
Potential Risk to Forces
The inspector general's report found that the intelligence shared by Hegseth was classified and posed a risk to the safety of US service members if it had been obtained by a foreign enemy force.
However, the report also noted that Hegseth possessed the authority to declassify the information he distributed, though it was unclear whether he actually did so.
Hegseth's Response
The source said that Hegseth refused to be interviewed by the investigators. Instead, he submitted a brief written statement.
In his statement, Hegseth claimed he only disclosed information that would not have risked lives or jeopardized the mission. He added that he had the right to downgrade information and viewed the inspector general to be partisan.
Next Steps
The completed report has been provided to lawmakers. An publicly releasable copy is expected to be made public in the coming days.
