IG report on Hegseth's use of Signal app complete, classified findings sent to lawmakers: Source
A monthslong investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's use of the commercial messaging app Signal is complete and its classified findings provided to Capitol Hill, according to a person familiar with the review.
The unclassified findings by the Defense Department's inspector general were expected to be released later this week, the person said.
Last March, The Atlantic revealed the existence of the Signal group chat that involved several members of President Donald Trump's national security team, including Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance and Trump's national security adviser at the time, Mike Waltz.
According to The Atlantic, Waltz inadvertently added its editor to the chat, which included discussions about an upcoming military plan to attack sites in Yemen controlled by Houthi militants.
In the chat, which the White House later confirmed as authentic, Hegseth revealed how a strike would unfold and when, including the use of F-18 fighter jets and Tomahawk missiles.
"THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP," Hegseth wrote at one point referencing Yemen and noting the military time of 1415 (2:15 p.m.) ahead of the March 15 strike.
Sources say Hegseth relayed similar details in a separate chat that included his wife, who does not work at the Pentagon.
On March 15, the military attack unfolded as described in the Signal chat, with U.S. jets hitting dozens of Houthi targets in Yemen, including missiles, radars and air defense systems.
When responding to the fallout, Hegseth and his chief spokesman, Sean Parnell, insisted repeatedly that the information was not classified.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Tulsi Gabbard, director of national intelligence, also testified that the chat did not include classified information.
"There was no classified information in any Signal chat, no matter how many ways they try to write the story," Parnell wrote on X on April 20.
In an April 22 interview on Fox News, Hegseth said the information was "informal unclassified coordination for media coordination."
Last spring, Sens. Roger Wicker, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Jack Reed, the top Democrat, called for the IG investigation into the handling of the information.
"The information as published recently appears to me to be of such a sensitive nature that, based on my knowledge, I would have wanted it classified," Wicker said at the time.
