A long-awaited Department of Defense report has determined that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth breached departmental policies by sharing secret information in a Signal messaging chat, according to a person briefed on the findings.
Details of the Event
The chat group in question contained details about a planned airstrike in Yemen targeting Houthi fighters. This chat was revealed after a journalist for the Atlantic was included as a participant.
Other officials 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 participants do not work at the Pentagon.
Signal is a commercially offered communication application that was not authorized for handling classified information.
Serious Risk to Forces
The internal investigation determined that the intelligence shared by Hegseth was classified and posed a risk to the lives of US service members if it had been obtained by a foreign enemy force.
Notably, the document acknowledged that Hegseth possessed the authority to downgrade the information he distributed, though it was not specified whether he formally exercised that authority.
Hegseth's Response
The source said that Hegseth refused to be interviewed by the inspector general. Instead, he submitted a brief written statement.
In his statement, Hegseth asserted he only shared details that would not have risked lives or compromised the operation. He further stated that he had the right to downgrade information and viewed the inspector general to be partisan.
Next Steps
The finalized investigation has been provided to Congress. An publicly releasable copy is anticipated to be released in the coming days.
