A long-awaited Pentagon report has determined that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth breached official protocols by sharing classified intelligence in a private Signal group, as stated by a source familiar with the report.
Details of the Incident
The online conversation in question contained particulars about a planned airstrike in Yemen targeting Houthi fighters. This chat was revealed after a journalist for the Atlantic was added as a participant.
Other individuals in the chat allegedly included JD Vance, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and then-national security adviser Mike Waltz. The report focused solely on the conduct of Hegseth, as the other participants do not work at the Pentagon.
Signal is a commercially offered communication application that was not approved for handling sensitive material.
Potential Risk to Forces
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 foreign enemy force.
Notably, the document acknowledged that Hegseth had the ability to downgrade the information he distributed, though it was not specified whether he actually exercised that authority.
Hegseth's Response
The source said that Hegseth refused to be interviewed 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 compromised the operation. He added that he possessed the authority to downgrade information and considered the inspector general to be politically motivated.
Future Actions
The completed report has been provided to Congress. An publicly releasable copy is anticipated to be made public later this week.
