A long-awaited Pentagon report has determined that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth violated official protocols by sharing secret information in a private Signal group, 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 against Houthi fighters. This chat was revealed after a reporter for the Atlantic was added as a participant.
Other individuals 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 participants do not work at the Department of Defense.
Signal is a publicly available messaging app that was not authorized for transmitting sensitive material.
Serious Threat to Troops
The internal investigation determined that the information circulated by Hegseth was classified and could have endangered the safety of US troops if it had been intercepted by a hostile nation.
However, the document acknowledged that Hegseth had the ability to downgrade the material he distributed, though it was not specified whether he formally exercised that authority.
Secretary's Response
The source indicated that Hegseth refused to be interviewed by the investigators. Instead, he provided a short written response.
In his statement, Hegseth asserted he only shared information that would not have endangered personnel or compromised the mission. He added that he possessed the authority to downgrade information and considered the inspector general to be partisan.
Future Actions
The completed report has been shared with Congress. An unclassified version is anticipated to be released later this week.
