A long-awaited Pentagon report has determined that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth violated official protocols by disclosing classified intelligence in a private Signal group, according to a person briefed on the findings.
Details of the Incident
The chat group in dispute included details about a scheduled airstrike in Yemen against Houthi fighters. This chat was revealed after a journalist for the Atlantic was included as a member.
Other officials in the chat allegedly included 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 participants do not work at the Department of Defense.
Signal is a publicly available messaging app that was not authorized for handling sensitive material.
Serious Threat to Forces
The inspector general's report determined that the intelligence shared by Hegseth was secret and could have endangered the safety of US service members if it had been obtained by a foreign enemy force.
Notably, the report also noted that Hegseth had the ability to declassify the material he shared, 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 brief written statement.
In his response, Hegseth claimed he only shared information that would not have endangered personnel or compromised the operation. He further stated that he possessed the authority to downgrade information and viewed the investigation to be partisan.
Future Actions
The completed report has been provided to Congress. An publicly releasable copy is anticipated to be released in the coming days.
