A highly anticipated Pentagon report has determined that Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth breached official protocols by sharing classified information in a private Signal group, according to a person briefed on the findings.
Details of the Incident
The chat group in question contained particulars about a planned airstrike in Yemen against 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 investigation focused solely on the conduct of Hegseth, as the other officials do not work at the Department of Defense.
Signal is a commercially offered messaging app that was not approved for handling classified information.
Potential Risk to Troops
The inspector general's report found that the information shared by Hegseth was secret and posed a risk to the safety of US troops if it had been obtained by a hostile nation.
However, the report acknowledged that Hegseth possessed the authority to downgrade the information he shared, 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 response, Hegseth asserted he only disclosed details that would not have risked lives or jeopardized the operation. He added that he possessed the authority to downgrade information and viewed the inspector general to be partisan.
Next Steps
The completed report has been provided to Congress. An publicly releasable copy is expected to be made public in the coming days.
