A long-awaited Department of Defense report has determined that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth breached official protocols 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 question included particulars about a planned 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 did not examine the conduct of Hegseth, as the other participants do not work at the Department of Defense.
Signal is a commercially offered communication application that was not authorized for transmitting sensitive material.
Potential Risk to Troops
The inspector general's report found that the intelligence shared by Hegseth was secret and could have endangered the lives of US troops if it had been intercepted by a hostile nation.
Notably, the document also noted that Hegseth had the ability to downgrade the material he distributed, though it was unclear whether he actually did so.
Secretary's Reaction
The source said that Hegseth declined an interview by the inspector general. Instead, he submitted a short written response.
In his statement, Hegseth claimed he only shared information that would not have risked lives or jeopardized the operation. He added that he possessed the authority to downgrade information and considered the investigation to be partisan.
Future Actions
The completed report has been shared with Congress. An publicly releasable copy is expected to be made public in the coming days.
