A long-awaited Department of Defense report has determined that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth breached departmental policies by disclosing classified intelligence in a private Signal group, according to a source familiar with the report.
Details of the Incident
The chat group in question contained details about a planned air attack in Yemen against Houthi fighters. This chat was revealed after a journalist for the Atlantic was added as a member.
Other individuals in the chat reportedly included Senator JD Vance, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and then-national security adviser Mike Waltz. The report did not examine the actions of Hegseth, as the other participants do not work at the Pentagon.
Signal is a publicly available communication application that was not approved for handling classified information.
Potential Risk to Forces
The internal investigation determined that the information circulated by Hegseth was secret and posed a risk to the safety of US service members if it had been intercepted by a foreign enemy force.
Notably, the document acknowledged that Hegseth had the ability to declassify the material he shared, though it was unclear whether he actually exercised that authority.
Hegseth's Response
The informed individual said that Hegseth refused to be interviewed by the investigators. Instead, he submitted a short written response.
In his statement, Hegseth claimed he only shared information that would not have endangered personnel or compromised the operation. He added that he had the right to declassify material and viewed the inspector general to be politically motivated.
Next Steps
The completed report has been provided to lawmakers. An unclassified version is expected to be made public later this week.
