A highly anticipated Pentagon report has concluded that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth violated departmental policies by disclosing classified information in a private Signal group, as stated by a source familiar with the report.
Details of the Event
The chat group in question included particulars about a planned airstrike in Yemen against Houthi militants. This chat was revealed after a journalist for the Atlantic was added as a member.
Other officials in the chat allegedly included Senator JD Vance, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and then-national security adviser Mike Waltz. The investigation did not examine the conduct of Hegseth, as the other participants do not work at the Pentagon.
Signal is a publicly available messaging app that was not approved for transmitting classified information.
Serious Threat to Forces
The inspector general's report determined that the intelligence circulated by Hegseth was classified and posed a risk to the lives of US troops if it had been intercepted by a foreign enemy force.
However, the report also noted that Hegseth had the ability to declassify the information he shared, though it was not specified whether he formally did so.
Secretary's Reaction
The informed individual said that Hegseth refused to be interviewed by the inspector general. Instead, he submitted a short written response.
In his statement, Hegseth asserted he only shared details that would not have endangered personnel or compromised the mission. He added that he had the right to downgrade information and considered the investigation to be partisan.
Future Actions
The completed report has been shared with lawmakers. An unclassified version is expected to be made public later this week.
