Defense Department Report Concludes Defense Secretary Put Military Personnel in Jeopardy with Messaging App Chat.
A long-awaited Department of Defense review has determined that Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth breached departmental policies by sharing classified intelligence in a private Signal group, as stated by a person briefed on the findings.
Particulars of the Event
The chat group in question contained particulars about a planned air attack in Yemen targeting Houthi fighters. This chat came to light after a journalist for the Atlantic was included as a member.
Other individuals in the chat allegedly included Senator JD Vance, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and then-national security adviser Mike Waltz. The report did not examine the conduct of Hegseth, as the other officials are not employed at the Department of Defense.
Signal is a publicly available messaging app that was not approved for handling classified information.
Serious Threat to Troops
The inspector general's report found that the information shared by Hegseth was classified and posed a risk to the safety of US troops if it had been intercepted by a hostile nation.
However, the report acknowledged that Hegseth had the ability to downgrade the information he distributed, though it was not specified whether he actually exercised that authority.
Secretary's Response
The informed individual said that Hegseth declined an interview by the investigators. Instead, he provided a short written response.
In his statement, Hegseth claimed he only disclosed details that would not have risked lives or compromised the mission. He further stated that he possessed the authority to downgrade information and considered the inspector general to be partisan.
Next Steps
The completed report has been provided to lawmakers. An unclassified version is expected to be released later this week.
