A highly anticipated Department of Defense report has determined that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth breached official protocols by sharing secret information in a Signal messaging chat, according to a person briefed on the findings.
Particulars of the Incident
The chat group in dispute contained details about a scheduled air attack in Yemen targeting Houthi fighters. This discussion came to light after a journalist for the Atlantic was included as a participant.
Other officials in the chat allegedly included Senator JD Vance, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and former security advisor Mike Waltz. The report did not examine the actions of Hegseth, as the other participants do not work at the Pentagon.
Signal is a commercially offered communication application that was not authorized for handling classified information.
Potential Risk to Troops
The inspector general's report determined that the intelligence shared by Hegseth was secret and could have endangered the lives of US troops if it had been obtained by a foreign enemy force.
Notably, the report acknowledged that Hegseth had the ability to downgrade the material he shared, though it was not specified whether he actually did so.
Hegseth's Response
The source indicated 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 information that would not have endangered personnel or compromised the mission. He added that he had the right to downgrade information and viewed the inspector general to be partisan.
Future Actions
The finalized investigation has been shared with lawmakers. An publicly releasable copy is expected to be released later this week.
