Pentagon watchdog launches probe into Hegseth use of Signal chat ahead of Houthi airstrike
The Pentagon's independent watchdog has announced it has agreed to a request from top senators and is launching a probe into the use of the commercial messaging app Signal by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other senior Trump administration officials to discuss an imminent U.S. military strike against Houthi militants in Yemen.
Last week, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I., sent a letter to DOD acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins requesting an expedited inquiry into that Signal discussion.
"The purpose of this memorandum is to notify you that we are initiating the subject evaluation," Stebbins wrote in a memo to the offices of the secretary of defense and the deputy secretary of defense. "We are conducting this evaluation in response to a March 26, 2025 letter I received from the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, requesting that I conduct an inquiry into recent public reporting on the Secretary of Defense's use of an unclassified commercially available messaging application to discuss information pertaining to military actions in Yemen in March 2025."
"The objective of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other DoD personnel complied with DoD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business. Additionally, we will review compliance with classification and records retention requirements," Stebbins added in the memo.
"We may revise the objective as the evaluation proceeds. We plan to perform this evaluation in accordance with the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency 'Quality Standards for Inspection and Evaluation,'" he said.
Last week, Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, revealed he had been added to a Signal text group that appeared to include senior Trump administration national security officials, including Vice President J.D. Vance, discussing plans to strike against Houthi targets in Yemen in mid-March.
Senior Trump administration officials including Hegseth pushed back on The Atlantic's description of the conversation and argued no classified war plans had been discussed.
