Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked endangering U.S. troops by sharing highly-sensitive information about military operations on a Signal group chat earlier this year, a report has found.
The classified report, conducted by the Inspector General, was sent to Congress Tuesday night, and first detailed by CNN. An unclassified version of the report is due to be released publicly Thursday.
Earlier this year Hegseth sent multiple messages about airstrikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen to a group chat on the private messaging app which included other senior members of the administration including Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. It also included Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, who was added accidentally by a National Security Advisor.
The messages, reported first by The Atlantic , contained classified and real-time information about the strikes and so specific that one read: “This is when the first bombs will drop.”
The incident immediately became a scandal known as “signal-gate” as numerous people mocked Hegseth for the blunder.
In its report the Inspector General noted that there was no documentation that proved Hegseth had declassified the information before sharing it on the chat, according to CNN. The Defense Secretary declined to be interviewed for the report and submitted his version of events in writing instead.
“The Inspector General review is a TOTAL exoneration of Secretary Hegseth and proves what we knew all along - no classified information was shared. This matter is resolved, and the case is closed,” Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell said, in a statement shared with The Independent.
It was later revealed that the information Hegseth was accused of sharing on the chat came from a file marked “SECRET/NOFORN,” contrary to claims made by the administration in the aftermath of the incident that no classified information was divulged.
The strike plans had initially been shared in a classified email to more than a dozen defense officials by General Michael Kurilla, Commander of the United States Central Command, who is in charge of U.S. military operations in the Middle East.
The incident in March are just part of a broader report following an investigation into Hegseth’s use of Signal.
Per CNN, the report states that Hegseth should not have used the messaging platform and that better training on protocols is needed for DOD officials.
It comes as controversy swirls around Hegseth once again, most recently it is over his handling of strikes of alleged drug -boats and “narco-terrorists” in the Caribbean. Critic responses have ranged from calls for the Defense Secretary to be fired to branding him a “war criminal.”
Reports from The Washington Post claimed that in the first strike against alleged drug boats in September involved an initial strike that left two survivors, but that the Pentagon chief gave the order to “kill everybody.”
Hegseth, a military veteran and former Fox News host, vehemently denied the claims and dismissed them as “fabricated, inflammatory, and derogatory” in a social media post, following the Post’s article.
On Sunday, Donald Trump strongly backed his defense secretary's account of events on September 2, saying: “Pete said that didn’t happen.”
Despite the denials, a bipartisan groups of lawmakers have now announced they are launching investigations of the follow-up strike and the Caribbean operation, amid previous concerns over the legality of the military strikes – which have now been ongoing for several months and left more than 80 people dead.
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