A widely awaited Department of Defense report concluded that the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, violated departmental policies when he shared secret information in a Signal messaging chat in March that included details of a planned airstrike in Yemen against Houthi fighters, said a source familiar with the report.
The Signal chat was disclosed after a reporter for the Atlantic was added as a member. It also included JD Vance; the CIA director, John Ratcliffe; and the then national security adviser, Mike Waltz. The report did not examine the conduct of those officials, since they do not work at the Department of Defense.
Signal is a publicly available messaging app that was not approved for classified information, but on which Hegseth and some of the other officials shared information about the pending attack.
The source said the report by the inspector general, the internal investigative agency for the defense department, found that the information Hegseth distributed was secret and could have endangered the lives of US troops if it had been intercepted by a foreign enemy force. CNN first reported on the contents of the report.
Still, the report said that Hegseth had the ability to declassify the information he distributed, though it was unclear whether he did actually declassify it.
The source said Hegseth refused to be interviewed by the inspector general, and instead provided a brief written statement in which he said he only shared information in the chat that would not have risked lives or endangered the mission, that he had the right to declassify material and that he considered the inspector general to be partisan.
The report was shared with Congress, and an unclassified version is expected to be released later this week.
In response, Democratic congressman Mark Warner, vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, called for Hegseth to resign on Wednesday.
“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.
“The report also notes that the IG is aware of several other Signal chats Hegseth used for official business, underscoring that this was not an isolated lapse. It reflects a broader pattern of recklessness and poor judgment from a secretary who has repeatedly shown he is in over his head.
“Our service members, including those stationed in Virginia and around the world, expect and deserve leaders who honor the sacrifices they make every day to protect our nation and never put them at unnecessary risk. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Pete Hegseth should resign, or the president must remove him at once.”
But Hegseth posted on Twitter/X rebuffing critics on Wednesday evening.
“No classified information. Total exoneration. Case closed. Houthis bombed into submission. Thank you for your attention to this IG report,” he wrote.
