A long-awaited Pentagon report has concluded that Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth breached official protocols by sharing secret information in a Signal messaging chat, as stated by a person briefed on the findings.
Details of the Incident
The chat group in question included details about a scheduled air attack in Yemen against Houthi militants. This chat came to light after a reporter for the Atlantic was added as a member.
Other officials in the group reportedly included JD Vance, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and then-national security adviser Mike Waltz. The report focused solely on the conduct of Hegseth, as the other participants do not work at the Pentagon.
Signal is a publicly available communication application that was not authorized for handling classified information.
Potential Risk to Forces
The inspector general's report found that the intelligence shared by Hegseth was classified and posed a risk to the lives of US troops if it had been intercepted by a foreign enemy force.
However, the document also noted that Hegseth had the ability to downgrade the information he shared, though it was unclear whether he actually exercised that authority.
Secretary's Response
The source indicated that Hegseth declined an interview by the investigators. Instead, he submitted a short written response.
In his response, Hegseth claimed he only disclosed details that would not have endangered personnel or jeopardized the mission. He further stated that he had the right to downgrade information and considered the investigation to be partisan.
Next Steps
The completed report has been provided to Congress. An unclassified version is expected to be released later this week.
