Republican Sen. Thom Tillis rejected Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's claim that a review by the Pentagon's Inspector General of the incident known as Signalgate is a complete "exoneration" of his actions.
Speaking to CNN, Tillis said "at some point, just take the learning experience and move on. No one can rationalize that as an exoneration."
GOP Sen. Tillis says Secretary Hegseth was not "totally exonerated" by the Pentagon's watchdog report, despite his claims he was.
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) December 4, 2025
"At some point, just take the learning experience and move on. No one can rationalize that as an exoneration." pic.twitter.com/TxaeF9Tedi
"We know that mission information was outside of the classified setting that it was trusted to be in. I don't even bring a pen to classified briefing. We obviously don't have our phones, our watches. I don't even bring a pen in to make notes to remove any doubt that there are some things that i could have dropped or put in the trash can becasue that's how seriously you need to take classified information. Thank god nothing bad happened," Tillis added.
"Why would you send the signal that maybe this is ok? Maybe you could be exonerated by leaking information before a critical mission. let's just move past it."
The investigation in question concluded that Hegseth disclosed sensitive operational information about U.S. airstrikes in Yemen using the encrypted messaging app Signal, raising concerns that he may have put American personnel and missions at risk, according to another report.
Messages sent from Hegseth's Signal account in March included real-time strike timelines, with one noting: "this is when the first bombs will drop." The communication involved a group chat of senior Trump administration officials. A journalist — Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic — was added inadvertently to that conversation by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, according to reports from earlier this year.
The inspector general concluded that Hegseth has authority to declassify information but found no documented decision showing he had done so before posting details from a document labeled Secret/NOFORN, meaning it could not be shared with foreign nationals.
The report further states Hegseth should not have used Signal and that senior Defense Department officials require improved training on information-handling protocols, sources said.
Hegseth declined to be interviewed by investigators, instead submitting written responses. He maintains that his classification authority and operational judgment allowed him to share the information, and that his use of Signal did not violate preservation rules under the Federal Records Act, according to a source familiar with his view.
After the report came out, Hegseth replied to a social media post from Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, who said "This Inspector General review is a TOTAL exoneration of Secretary Hegseth and proves what we knew all along - no classified information was shared."
No classified information.
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) December 3, 2025
Total exoneration.
Case closed.
Houthis bombed into submission.
Thank you for your attention to this IG report. https://t.co/eQPO5iPIRc
"No classified information. Total exoneration. Case closed. Houthis bombed into submission. Thank you for your attention to this IG report," Hegseth said on his end.
Originally published on Latin Times
