A highly anticipated Pentagon report has concluded that Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth violated departmental policies by disclosing secret intelligence in a private Signal group, according to a source familiar with the report.
Details of the Incident
The online conversation in question contained particulars about a planned air attack in Yemen against Houthi militants. This chat was revealed after a journalist 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 officials are not employed at the Department of Defense.
Signal is a publicly available messaging app that was not authorized for handling classified information.
Serious Threat to Forces
The inspector general's report determined that the information circulated by Hegseth was classified and could have endangered the lives of US service members if it had been obtained by a hostile nation.
Notably, the report also noted that Hegseth had the ability to declassify the material he distributed, though it was not specified whether he formally did so.
Hegseth's Response
The informed individual indicated that Hegseth refused to be interviewed by the inspector general. Instead, he provided a short written response.
In his statement, Hegseth claimed he only disclosed information that would not have endangered personnel or compromised the mission. He added that he possessed the authority to downgrade information and viewed the investigation to be partisan.
Future Actions
The completed report has been provided to lawmakers. An unclassified version is anticipated to be released later this week.
