A recent report from the Department of Defense’s internal watchdog has concluded that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth potentially compromised the safety of U.S. troops. This conclusion comes after he allegedly shared real-time operational details of a military strike against Houthi militants in Yemen via a Signal group chat.
The Pentagon’s inspector general found that Hegseth provided detailed updates on the missile strikes as they happened in March. These updates were shared in a group chat that inadvertently included Jeffrey Goldberg, an editor at The Atlantic, according to a CNN report citing four people familiar with the classified findings.
In one of the messages sent to the group, which was set up to discuss the attack strategy, Hegseth reportedly stated, “This is when the first bombs will drop.”
The inspector general’s report criticized Hegseth’s use of the Signal app for such sensitive communications, emphasizing that senior officials in the Department of Defense require improved training on appropriate communication methods.
The findings were distributed to Hegseth and leaders in Congress on Tuesday, with an unclassified version anticipated for public release on Thursday.
While Hegseth opted not to meet with the inspector general for an in-person interview, he did respond to questions through written statements, as reported by CNN.
It’s not clear what if any consequences Hegseth or anyone else will face as a result of their role in the scandal, which became public because Goldberg wrote about the disturbing breach of security.
Congress has said it plans bipartisan hearings on the matter.
The attack was considered a success and killed several leaders of the Yemeni militant group, which later declared a pause in its campaign of attacks on Western shipping in the Red Sea. It’s not known if the leaked Signal chat compromised any other military operations or intelligence-gathering sources and methods.
Hegseth and other Trump administration officials have insisted that no classified materials were shared in the chat, which included Vice President JD Vance, CIA director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
The report casts doubt on that claim, noting that some operational information that was marked as classified was passed on to the group by Hegseth and that there is no evidence backing his assertion that he declassified it.
UN Ambassador Mike Waltz, who was then serving as White House national security adviser, admitted accidentally adding Goldberg to the group chat after apparently confusing his contact details with those of another aide.
The IG report amounts to another black eye for Hegseth, who is already facing major questions about his oversight of the U.S. campaign against alleged drug-trafficking boats off the coast of South America.
He claimed a senior Navy admiral ordered a legally dubious second strike on one boat that killed two survivors of an initial strike, an attack that critics say amounts to a war crime.
