A long-awaited Pentagon review has determined that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth breached departmental policies 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 included particulars about a scheduled airstrike in Yemen against Houthi fighters. This chat was revealed after a journalist for the Atlantic was added as a participant.
Other individuals in the chat reportedly included Senator JD Vance, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and then-national security adviser Mike Waltz. The investigation focused solely on the actions of Hegseth, as the other participants are not employed at the Department of Defense.
Signal is a commercially offered communication application that was not approved for handling classified information.
Potential Threat to Forces
The inspector general's report found that the information circulated by Hegseth was classified and could have endangered the safety of US troops if it had been intercepted by a foreign enemy force.
Notably, the document acknowledged that Hegseth had the ability to declassify the material he shared, though it was not specified whether he actually exercised that authority.
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 details that would not have endangered personnel or compromised the operation. He further stated that he possessed the authority to downgrade information and viewed the investigation to be politically motivated.
Future Actions
The completed report has been shared with lawmakers. An publicly releasable copy is anticipated to be made public in the coming days.
