A Pentagon inspector general report has found that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth endangered American forces when he disclosed details of a covert military operation in Yemen over the commercial messaging app Signal, USA Today reported on Wednesday.
The watchdog concluded that while Hegseth violated Pentagon policy by using his personal phone, he nonetheless had the authority to declassify the information he shared, according to a person familiar with the findings.
The investigation was launched after Hegseth relayed plans for a US strike on Houthi forces in Yemen in a Signal chat with administration officials. The messages included the timing of bomb drops and were later published by The Atlantic, whose editor Jeffrey Goldberg had been mistakenly added to the group chat.
Hegseth rejected claims that the information amounted to “war plans,” insisting he had the right to declassify the messages. The watchdog warned that if the information had reached US adversaries, it could have jeopardized the mission and endangered service members.
Investigators relied on screenshots of Hegseth’s messages published by The Atlantic, as he provided only a handful of his own texts. He declined to be interviewed, submitting instead a written statement asserting his authority to declassify information and accusing the inspector general of bias.
Two redacted reports are expected to be released Thursday, according to USA Today. One addresses Hegseth’s conduct, while the other highlights the Pentagon’s lack of a secure messaging platform for real-time communication.
The Signal chat included more than a dozen officials, among them former White House national security adviser Michael Waltz - now the US envoy to the UN - Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles.
Waltz took full responsibility for accidentally including Goldberg in the Signal chat.
Trump had considered firing Waltz, but ultimately refrained from doing so, hoping to avoid giving political opponents an easy win and to preserve a sense of stability, in contrast to the chaotic personnel changes of his first term. He eventually nominated him for the position of US Ambassador to the UN.