A highly anticipated Department of Defense report has concluded that Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth violated departmental policies by sharing classified 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 scheduled air attack in Yemen against Houthi militants. This discussion came to light after a reporter 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 did not examine the conduct of Hegseth, as the other participants are not employed at the Pentagon.
Signal is a publicly available communication application that was not approved for handling classified information.
Serious Threat to Forces
The inspector general's report determined that the information shared by Hegseth was classified and could have endangered the safety of US service members if it had been obtained by a foreign enemy force.
However, the report acknowledged that Hegseth had the ability to downgrade the information he shared, though it was not specified whether he actually 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 asserted he only shared details that would not have risked lives or jeopardized the operation. He added that he had the right to downgrade information and considered the inspector general to be partisan.
Next Steps
The completed report has been shared with lawmakers. An unclassified version is expected to be released later this week.
