In a concerning revelation, Pete Hegseth has been accused of jeopardizing troop safety by disclosing sensitive military plans on the messaging app Signal back in March. This alarming detail emerged from a classified Inspector General report.

The leaked documents allegedly outlined U.S. military strategies against Houthi rebels in Yemen, placing Hegseth in a precarious position. According to four individuals privy to the report’s content, as reported by CNN, his actions have raised significant concerns.

Steven Stebbins, the acting Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Defense, emphasized that the defense secretary holds the power to declassify such information. However, it appears this protocol was not followed in this instance.

Hegseth has defended his actions, stating that the decision to share the information was made spontaneously as part of operational strategy. Yet, his choice to bypass an in-person interview with the Inspector General, opting instead to submit a written response, has raised eyebrows, as reported by a source close to Hegseth to the Daily Mail.

This report surfaces as the Pentagon grapples with further scrutiny. The military is currently under fire over allegations of war crimes, stemming from claims that Hegseth ordered a secondary strike on a Venezuelan boat, resulting in two fatalities.

This fresh report comes amid pressure the Pentagon is facing over the alleged war crimes accusation amid reports that Hegseth ordered a second strike on a Venezuelan boat that killed two men. 

The Pentagon and White House shot down the report, claiming that Adm. Frank Bradley, not Hegseth, made the decision to launch that second strike to kill the men who had survived the first strike. 

The signal investigation found that Hegseth should not have used the messaging app and that senior Defense Department officials need better training on protocols, sources say.

Signal is encrypted but is not permitted for communicating classified information. 

After a months long investigation, a classified Inspector General report revealed that Pentagon lead Pete Hegseth put troops lives in danger

A bipartisan Congressional investigation has begun regarding Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s role in ordering US military strikes on small boats in the waters off Venezuela that have killed scores of people, which Hegseth said are intended ‘to stop lethal drugs, destroy narco–boats and kill the narco–terrorists who are poisoning the American people’

A legal source close to Hegseth told Daily Mail that Hegseth declassified the information, although there is no written or recorded verbal record of him doing so.

The source asserts that since Hegseth is the original classifying authority, he has the digression to declassify something –– ‘even if it’s not a good idea.’

‘The only caveat to that would be if he revealed something by the CIA. But it is clear that did not happen here – it was all operational DOD plans, not CIA,’ a legal source familiar with the process told Daily Mail.

The real–time military plans were, however, so specific with details that one message sent to the chat even mentioned timing, saying, ‘This is when the first bomb will drop.’ 

The de–classified version of the IG report is supposed to be released Thursday for the public to view. 

The classified report was sent to Congress on Tuesday 

The case was referred to Inspector General Stebbins after the first official request by Senate Armed Services Committee leaders back in March. 

The investigation was officially launched a month later after Senators Roger Wicker and Jack Reed inquired into whether Hegseth disclosed classified information on the encrypted messaging app. 

Hegseth´s use of the app came to light when a journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, was inadvertently added to a Signal text chain by then–national security adviser Mike Waltz. It included Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and others, brought together to discuss March 15 military operations against the Iran–backed Houthis.

Hegseth had created another Signal chat with 13 people that included his wife and brother where he shared similar details of the same strike, The Associated Press reported.

Multiple current and former military officials told the AP there was no way details with that specificity, especially before a strike took place, would have been OK to share on an unsecured device. 

The inspector general opened its investigation into Hegseth at the request of the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, and the committee´s top Democrat, Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island.

Some veterans and military families also raised concerns, citing the strict security protocols they must follow to protect sensitive information.

The Houthi rebels had started launching missile and drone attacks against commercial and military ships in late 2023 in what their leadership had described as an effort to end Israel´s offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Their campaign greatly reduced the flow of trade through the Red Sea corridor, which typically sees $1 trillion of goods move through it annually.

Hegseth told Fox News Channel in April that what he shared over Signal was ‘informal, unclassified coordinations, for media coordinations and other things.’

During a congressional hearing in June, Hegseth was pressed multiple times by lawmakers over whether he shared classified information and if he should face accountability if he did.

Rep. Seth Moulton, a Massachusetts Democrat and Marine veteran, asked Hegseth whether he would hold himself accountable if the inspector general found that he placed classified information on Signal.

Hegseth would not directly say, only noting that he serves ‘at the pleasure of the president.’

The Pentagon did not respond for comment.