A highly anticipated Pentagon report has concluded that Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth breached departmental policies by disclosing classified information in a Signal messaging chat, according to a person briefed on the findings.
Details of the Event
The online conversation in question included particulars about a planned air attack in Yemen targeting Houthi militants. This chat came to light after a journalist for the Atlantic was added as a participant.
Other officials in the chat allegedly included Senator JD Vance, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and former security advisor Mike Waltz. The investigation did not examine the conduct of Hegseth, as the other participants are not employed at the Department of Defense.
Signal is a commercially offered communication application that was not approved for handling sensitive material.
Potential Risk to Troops
The internal investigation determined that the intelligence shared by Hegseth was classified and could have endangered the safety of US service members if it had been obtained by a foreign enemy force.
However, the report acknowledged that Hegseth had the ability to downgrade the information he distributed, though it was unclear whether he actually did so.
Hegseth's Response
The source indicated that Hegseth refused to be interviewed by the inspector general. Instead, he submitted a short written response.
In his response, Hegseth asserted he only disclosed details that would not have endangered personnel or jeopardized the mission. He further stated that he possessed the authority to declassify material and considered the inspector general to be partisan.
Future Actions
The finalized investigation has been shared with Congress. An unclassified version is expected to be released later this week.
