A highly anticipated Pentagon report has determined that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth violated official protocols by disclosing secret information in a private Signal group, as stated by a source familiar with the report.
Details of the Incident
The chat group in dispute contained details about a planned airstrike in Yemen targeting Houthi militants. This discussion came to light after a journalist for the Atlantic was included as a member.
Other individuals in the chat allegedly included JD Vance, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and then-national security adviser Mike Waltz. The report did not examine the actions of Hegseth, as the other participants are not employed at the Department of Defense.
Signal is a publicly available communication application that was not approved for handling sensitive material.
Potential Threat to Troops
The inspector general's report found that the information shared by Hegseth was secret and posed a risk to the safety of US service members if it had been obtained by a hostile nation.
Notably, the document acknowledged that Hegseth possessed the authority to downgrade the material he shared, though it was not specified whether he formally exercised that authority.
Secretary's Response
The source 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 disclosed details that would not have endangered personnel or compromised the mission. He added that he had the right to downgrade information and considered the inspector general to be politically motivated.
Future Actions
The completed report has been shared with lawmakers. An unclassified version is expected to be made public in the coming days.
