A long-awaited Pentagon report has determined that Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth violated departmental policies by sharing 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 planned airstrike in Yemen against Houthi militants. This discussion was revealed after a journalist for the Atlantic was added as a participant.
Other officials in the group allegedly included JD Vance, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and former security advisor Mike Waltz. The investigation did not examine the actions of Hegseth, as the other officials do not work at the Department of Defense.
Signal is a commercially offered communication application that was not approved for handling sensitive material.
Potential Threat to Troops
The inspector general's report determined that the intelligence shared by Hegseth was secret and posed a risk to the lives of US troops if it had been obtained by a hostile nation.
However, the report also noted that Hegseth possessed the authority to downgrade the information he shared, though it was unclear whether he formally did so.
Hegseth's Reaction
The source said that Hegseth refused to be interviewed by the inspector general. Instead, he submitted a brief written statement.
In his response, Hegseth asserted he only disclosed information that would not have risked lives or jeopardized the mission. He added that he had the right to declassify material and considered the inspector general to be partisan.
Future Actions
The finalized investigation has been shared with Congress. An unclassified version is expected to be made public in the coming days.
