Pete Hegseth put U.S. troops in danger by sharing sensitive war plans on the Signal group chat app, according to an inspector general’s report on the Signalgate scandal.
The watchdog report was sent to lawmakers on Tuesday night, and a copy was leaked to CNN. The unclassified version of the IG report is set to be released on Thursday.
The report said Hegseth should not have used Signal and determined that senior Defense Department officials need better training on protocols, CNN’s sources said.
Hegseth and other Pentagon officials have repeatedly denied that any classified material was shared on the chat.
The Defense Secretary’s use of Signal to share information about the strike in Yemen with other Trump administration officials was first reported by The Atlantic in March when its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was inadvertently included in the group.
The entire Signal chat released by The Atlantic showed that the defense secretary shared exact times that fighter jets would launch and when they would hit their targets.
It set off a months-long investigation amid calls for Hegseth to resign.
The Daily Beast asked the Pentagon for comment.
The Pentagon chief survived the initial scandal, with Trump reportedly uneasy about firing any of his inner circle so early in his second presidency. His first term was marked by the turmoil caused by the rapid turnover in Cabinet positions.
The only fall guy was National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, who mistakenly added Goldberg to the chat group. The former Florida congressman was given a new job as ambassador to the United Nations as a consolation prize by Trump.
It has been a bad week for Hegseth, who was already facing pressure over a report in the Washington Post alleging he gave an order to kill everyone on board a narco boat sunk by U.S. missiles in the Caribbean on September 2.
A first strike on the boat killed nine alleged drug smugglers but left two survivors clinging to the wreckage. A second missile killed them.
Democratic lawmakers have demanded an inquiry into the strikes and have accused Hegseth of a war crime.
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