A long-awaited Department of Defense report has determined that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth breached departmental policies by disclosing secret information in a Signal messaging chat, according to a person briefed on the findings.
Details of the Incident
The chat group in dispute included details about a scheduled air attack in Yemen against Houthi militants. This chat was revealed after a reporter for the Atlantic was added as a member.
Other individuals in the group allegedly included JD Vance, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and then-national security adviser Mike Waltz. The report did not examine the conduct of Hegseth, as the other participants do not work at the Department of Defense.
Signal is a commercially offered communication application that was not authorized for transmitting sensitive material.
Potential Risk to Forces
The internal investigation determined that the intelligence circulated by Hegseth was classified and posed a risk to the safety of US troops if it had been intercepted by a hostile nation.
Notably, the document acknowledged that Hegseth had the ability to declassify the material he shared, though it was not specified whether he formally did so.
Hegseth's Reaction
The informed individual indicated that Hegseth declined an interview by the investigators. Instead, he provided a short written response.
In his statement, Hegseth asserted he only disclosed details that would not have risked lives or compromised the operation. He further stated that he possessed the authority to downgrade information and considered the investigation to be partisan.
Future Actions
The completed report has been shared with Congress. An publicly releasable copy is expected to be released later this week.
