A long-awaited Department of Defense report has concluded that Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth breached departmental policies by disclosing classified information in a private Signal group, according to a source familiar with the report.
Details of the Event
The chat group in dispute included details about a scheduled air attack in Yemen against Houthi fighters. This chat was revealed after a reporter for the Atlantic was added as a participant.
Other officials in the chat allegedly included Senator JD Vance, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and then-national security adviser Mike Waltz. The report focused solely on the actions of Hegseth, as the other participants do not work at the Department of Defense.
Signal is a publicly available communication application that was not authorized for transmitting sensitive material.
Potential Threat to Forces
The internal investigation determined that the information shared by Hegseth was secret and posed a risk to the lives of US troops if it had been intercepted by a foreign enemy force.
Notably, the report also noted that Hegseth possessed the authority to downgrade the information he shared, though it was not specified whether he actually did so.
Secretary's Reaction
The informed individual indicated that Hegseth refused to be interviewed by the investigators. Instead, he provided a short written response.
In his statement, Hegseth claimed he only disclosed information that would not have risked lives or jeopardized the operation. He added that he had the right to downgrade information and considered the inspector general to be politically motivated.
Future Actions
The completed report has been shared with lawmakers. An publicly releasable copy is anticipated to be released later this week.
