A highly anticipated report from the Defense Department’s inspector general found that Secretary Pete Hegseth endangered troops when he sent detailed information regarding the quantity and timing of U.S. strikes over hostile territory using a messaging application on his personal cell phone.
The report, released Thursday but made available to congressional offices earlier this week, was requested by Senate Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I., after news broke in March that a journalist from The Atlantic had been inadvertently added to a Cabinet-level group chat in which U.S. strikes on Houthi forces in Yemen were planned and then discussed in real time.
The release, coming at a time when Hegseth is under intense scrutiny for his role in a Sept. 2 so-called double-tap strike against an alleged drug-carrying vessel, caused some Democratic lawmakers to call for his immediate ouster. Reaction among Republicans was more circumspect.
