The Pentagon’s top independent watchdog has determined that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth violated security protocols and endangered U.S. troops and objectives by using a personal device to share sensitive operational details on the unclassified messaging app Signal, according to people familiar with the findings in a forthcoming report.
The Defense Department inspector general report, set to be released Thursday, appears certain to reignite an issue that has dogged Hegseth for much of his tenure in office.
The inquiry was requested on a bipartisan basis by top leaders in the Senate Armed Services Committee in March after the Atlantic magazine reported that then-national security adviser Mike Waltz inadvertently added a journalist to a digital discussion in which Vice President JD Vance, Hegseth and numerous other Cabinet officials shared and discussed details of a bombing campaign in Yemen against Houthi militants.
Hegseth shared specifics about the strikes before they began March 15 in a Signal group labeled “Houthi PC small group,” referencing the Yemeni rebel fighters and using an acronym for the principals committee at the White House that includes other senior officials.
The defense secretary at one point even texted members of the group chat that they were “currently clean on OPSEC,” or operational security, despite Hegseth sharing sensitive operational details in the forum.
A spokesman for Hegseth, Sean Parnell, said in a statement Wednesday that the inspector general review is a “TOTAL exoneration of Secretary Hegseth and proves what we knew all along — no classified information was shared. This matter is resolved, and the case is closed.”
One official familiar with Hegseth’s thinking acknowledged that the information he sent on Signal had previously been classified. But as defense secretary, Hegseth is considered an “original classification authority,” meaning he has the ability to declassify virtually anything involving the department at his discretion.
“There was never a chance for this report to come out and say, ‘The secretary put classified information into a Signal chat,’” the official said, speaking, like others interviewed for this report, on the condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive inquiry. “That was just never in the cards, because as the original classification authority, he has the authority to declassify anything within the Department of Defense.”
The watchdog report did not wade into whether Hegseth handled declassification appropriately, people familiar with the matter said. But the inspector general did assess that Hegseth violated Defense Department policies by using his personal device for official business and recommended better training for all department personnel on the issue.
Two people who reviewed the report said Hegseth declined an interview with the inspector general. In July, spokespeople on his behalf accused the inspector general’s team of conducting a “witch hunt” and asserted without evidence that details from it that had been published in the media had been leaked by holdovers who served under President Joe Biden.
The full, classified document was shared Wednesday with the House and Senate Armed Services committees, as well as Hegseth’s office. Spokespeople for the inspector general’s office and for Hegseth did not respond to requests for comment.
The report’s impending release was reported earlier by NBC News, and some findings were reported by CNN.
The information Hegseth shared in the Signal chat derived from a classified email that Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, then the commander overseeing U.S. operations in the Middle East, had sent through secure channels to senior defense officials, according to people familiar with the inspector general’s inquiry.
As The Washington Post first reported in July, Kurilla’s message was labeled “SECRET/NOFORN,” a government designation meaning the contents were classified at a level at which unauthorized disclosure could be expected to cause serious damage to national security and was not intended to be read by any foreign national, including close allies of the United States.
The incident became a major political crisis for the Trump administration and for Waltz, who was removed from his White House post. He now serves as U.N. ambassador.
The Atlantic’s disclosure that highly sensitive operations were discussed on an unclassified communications system raised questions about the Trump administration’s security practices and prompted Hegseth to attack the publication’s editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, in personal terms as a “deceitful” journalist who “peddles in garbage.”
Hegseth has denied that the information he divulged over Signal was classified and said that his communications were “authorized,” including when pressed by lawmakers in hearings this summer.
More recently, Hegseth has made light of the affair. Speaking before a crowd at a November event organized by Fox Nation, the defense secretary pointed Waltz out in the crowd and said, “Mike, I’ll hit you up on Signal later,” drawing both laughter and groans from the crowd.
“Too soon?” Hegseth added. “C’mon!”
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) told reporters after reviewing the report that it was “very clearly stated” that Hegseth should not have been using his cellphone for such work. It was “not a surprise” to see the Pentagon note that Hegseth, as defense secretary, can “unilaterally unclassify” information, Kelly added.
“It said that he was in violation of some DoD regulations,” Kelly said. “Whether that’s breaking the law, you’ve got to figure that out.”
Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-Virginia) said in a statement: “An objective, evidence-based investigation by the Pentagon’s internal watchdog leaves no doubt: Secretary Hegseth endangered the lives of American pilots based aboard the USS Harry S. Truman as they prepared to launch a mission against terrorist targets. By sharing classified operational details on an unsecure group chat on his personal phone, he created unacceptable risks to their safety and to our operational security.” Two other people familiar with the report also said it specifically raised the possibility of harm to U.S. pilots.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) declined to comment on specifics of the report, but he said it made clear that Hegseth was “well within his authority to do what he did.”
Mullin, asked if he thought any Pentagon protocols were broken, responded: “No.”
The release of the inspector general’s report occurs at a fraught moment for Hegseth, whose leadership of the Pentagon has recently drawn scrutiny following The Post’s exclusive report Friday revealing his involvement in a lethal military strike on alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean.
The Republican-led House and Senate Armed Services committees have opened inquiries into that incident to determine whether the controversial attack, which resulted in the death of 11 people, including two initial survivors in a subsequent missile strike, amounted to a war crime.
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