A highly anticipated Department of Defense review has determined that Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth violated departmental policies by sharing secret intelligence in a Signal messaging chat, as stated by a person briefed on the findings.
Details of the Event
The chat group in dispute contained particulars about a scheduled air attack in Yemen targeting Houthi militants. This chat was revealed after a reporter for the Atlantic was included as a participant.
Other individuals in the chat reportedly included Senator JD Vance, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and former security advisor Mike Waltz. The report did not examine the conduct of Hegseth, as the other officials do not work at the Pentagon.
Signal is a publicly available communication application that was not authorized for handling classified information.
Potential Threat to Forces
The internal investigation found that the information circulated by Hegseth was secret and could have endangered the lives of US troops if it had been intercepted by a hostile nation.
Notably, the document acknowledged that Hegseth possessed the authority to downgrade the information he distributed, though it was unclear whether he actually did so.
Hegseth's Reaction
The source said that Hegseth refused to be interviewed by the inspector general. Instead, he submitted a short written response.
In his statement, Hegseth claimed he only disclosed information that would not have endangered personnel or jeopardized the operation. He further stated that he possessed the authority to declassify material and viewed the investigation to be politically motivated.
Next Steps
The completed report has been shared with Congress. An unclassified version is anticipated to be made public in the coming days.
