Pentagon Report Finds Hegseth Put Military Personnel in Jeopardy with Signal Conversation.
A long-awaited Department of Defense report has determined that Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth violated departmental policies by disclosing secret information in a Signal messaging chat, according to a person briefed on the findings.
Details of the Incident
The chat group in question included details about a planned airstrike in Yemen targeting Houthi militants. This chat was revealed after a journalist for the Atlantic was included as a participant.
Other individuals in the chat allegedly included JD Vance, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and then-national security adviser Mike Waltz. The investigation did not examine the conduct of Hegseth, as the other participants do not work at the Department of Defense.
Signal is a commercially offered messaging app that was not authorized for handling classified information.
Potential Risk to Forces
The inspector general's report determined that the intelligence shared by Hegseth was secret and posed a risk to the safety of US troops if it had been obtained by a foreign enemy force.
However, the document also noted that Hegseth possessed the authority to downgrade the material he distributed, though it was not specified whether he actually exercised that authority.
Hegseth's Reaction
The source indicated that Hegseth declined an interview by the investigators. Instead, he submitted a brief written statement.
In his statement, 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 downgrade information and viewed the inspector general to be partisan.
Future Actions
The completed report has been shared with Congress. An publicly releasable copy is anticipated to be released in the coming days.
