A highly anticipated Department of Defense report has concluded that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth breached departmental policies by disclosing 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 contained details about a scheduled air attack in Yemen against Houthi militants. This discussion came to light after a reporter for the Atlantic was included as a participant.
Other individuals in the chat allegedly included Senator JD Vance, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and former security advisor Mike Waltz. The investigation focused solely on the conduct of Hegseth, as the other participants are not employed at the Department of Defense.
Signal is a commercially offered messaging app that was not authorized for handling classified information.
Potential Risk to Troops
The inspector general's report found that the intelligence shared by Hegseth was secret and posed a risk to the lives of US troops if it had been obtained by a hostile nation.
Notably, the report also noted that Hegseth had the ability to downgrade the material he distributed, though it was not specified whether he actually exercised that authority.
Secretary's Response
The source said that Hegseth declined an interview by the inspector general. Instead, he submitted a brief written statement.
In his response, Hegseth claimed he only shared details that would not have endangered personnel or jeopardized the mission. He added that he had the right to downgrade information and considered the inspector general to be partisan.
Next Steps
The completed report has been provided to lawmakers. An publicly releasable copy is expected to be made public later this week.
