A highly anticipated Pentagon report has determined that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth breached official protocols by sharing secret information in a Signal messaging chat, as stated by a source familiar with the report.
Details of the Event
The online conversation in dispute contained details about a planned air attack in Yemen targeting Houthi fighters. This discussion came to light after a journalist for the Atlantic was added as a participant.
Other officials in the chat reportedly included 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 publicly available communication application that was not approved for handling classified information.
Potential Risk to Forces
The inspector general's report determined that the intelligence shared by Hegseth was secret and posed a risk to the safety of US service members if it had been obtained by a hostile nation.
However, the document also noted that Hegseth possessed the authority to declassify the information he shared, though it was not specified whether he actually exercised that authority.
Secretary's Response
The source indicated that Hegseth refused to be interviewed by the inspector general. Instead, he provided a brief written statement.
In his response, Hegseth claimed he only shared details that would not have endangered personnel or jeopardized the mission. He further stated that he possessed the authority to downgrade information and viewed the inspector general to be partisan.
Next Steps
The completed report has been shared with Congress. An unclassified version is anticipated to be released in the coming days.
