The Pentagon’s inspector general has determined that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth Messaging app signals used improperly to convey sensitive information, thereby posing a threat to United States military action.
Media reports released Wednesday previewed the inspector general’s report, which will be released in full on Thursday.
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Unidentified sources familiar with the document told news organizations including the Associated Press that Hegseth’s use of a personal device to transmit sensitive information is believed to be a violation of Pentagon policy.
The inspector general’s report focuses on the scandal that came to light in late March, when Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, wrote an article describing the extraordinary series of events.
Goldberg described how, on March 11, he received an invitation to join Signal Chat, apparently sent by then-National Security Adviser Mike Waltz.
Unsure whether the message was a hoax or not, Goldberg accepted the invitation. Two days later, he said, he found himself in the middle of a conversation with some of the most senior officials in President Donald Trump’s administration.
Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio were in attendance.
Trump defended Signal Chat
Hegseth said in signal chat Details revealed In advance of the March 15 attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen. Those details included the exact timing of when the F-18s would launch, when the drones would arrive and when both sides would launch their airstrikes.
Goldberg’s reporting on the chat sparked outrage at the Trump administration, and Waltz and Hegseth in particular.
Critics decried the risk the messages posed to US military operations overseas, with some worrying that if the signal chat had fallen into the wrong hands, it could have put the lives of service members at risk.
This week’s inspector general report recommends more training to ensure compliance with operational security standards.
But Hegseth declines to measure whether the material broadcast on the signal was classified at the time.
Instead, the inspector general points out that, as secretary of defense, Hegseth has the authority to determine the classification level of military intelligence and could have classified the information if he chose to do so.
Sean Parnell, a spokesman for Hegseth’s office, described the finding as a victory for the embattled defense secretary, who has denied it. “Battle plans” were shared On the messaging app.
“The inspector general review is a complete exoneration of Secretary Hegseth and proves what we knew – no classified information was shared,” Parnell wrote. statement.
“This matter has been resolved and the case is closed.”
Parnell also hired the media to highlight the information risks to members of the US military.
“There is zero evidence to support this conclusion. None,” Parnell wrote In response to a New York Times post raising the potential risks.
In contrast, Parnell argued, the “flawless execution and success of Operation Rough Rider” – the name of the Yemen bombing campaign – was evidence that no troops were harmed.
President Trump has previously stated the consequences of this scandal A “witch-hunt” and questioned whether the signal itself was not “defective”.
Administration Officer Called repeatedly “Case closed” for the scam, dubbed SignalGate. Meanwhile, Hegseth has received no public reprimand from the administration for his part in the gossip.
‘Breach of Protocol’
But critics such as Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called the conversation “the most stunning breach of military intelligence” in recent years.
Some pointed out that foreign intelligence agencies could have intercepted the signal messages. Others argued that Signal’s auto-delete function violated government transparency requirements that require documents to be kept securely.
Democrats and some Republicans called for an investigation into Hegseth’s actions. In March 26 letterThe late Gerald Connolly, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee at the time, echoed that call.
“I request that you immediately open an inquiry into this serious breach of protocol and national trust,” he wrote.
“The use of signals to communicate this information put the lives of military men and women at risk and shamelessly advertised to our enemies the careless attitude of our nation’s senior leaders.”
On April 3, acting Pentagon Inspector General Steven Stebbins responded to the outcry. He opened the inquiry and explained that he was asked to do so by the leadership of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“The purpose of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other DoD (Department of Defense) employees followed DoD policies and procedures for using commercial messaging applications for official business,” Stebbins wrote in a short, one-page statement. Memo.
“In addition, we will review compliance with classification and record retention requirements.”
Stebbins took over as acting inspector general in January after Trump led a purge of government watchdogs.
On January 24, just days into his second term, Trump fired more than a dozen inspectors general — nonpartisan officials charged with overseeing various executive agencies.
That included Stebbins’ predecessor, Robert Storch, who served as inspector general for the Department of Defense from 2022 to 2025.