A long-awaited Pentagon review has concluded that Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth breached departmental policies by sharing secret information in a Signal messaging chat, as stated by a source familiar with the report.
Particulars of the Incident
The online conversation in question contained particulars about a planned air attack in Yemen targeting Houthi militants. This discussion came to light after a journalist for the Atlantic was added as a participant.
Other individuals in the group allegedly 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 Department of Defense.
Signal is a commercially offered messaging app that was not authorized for transmitting sensitive material.
Potential Threat to Forces
The internal investigation determined that the information shared by Hegseth was secret and posed a risk to the lives of US service members if it had been obtained by a foreign enemy force.
However, the document acknowledged that Hegseth possessed the authority to downgrade the material he distributed, though it was not specified whether he formally did so.
Secretary's Reaction
The source said that Hegseth refused to be interviewed by the inspector general. Instead, he provided a brief written statement.
In his statement, Hegseth claimed he only disclosed details that would not have risked lives or compromised the mission. He added that he had the right to downgrade information and considered the inspector general to be partisan.
Next Steps
The finalized investigation has been shared with Congress. An publicly releasable copy is expected to be made public later this week.
