Pentagon's Signalgate review finds Pete Hegseth violated military regulations

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department Inspector General concluded in a report filed Tuesday that the information Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared on a group Signal chat about a pending military operation in Yemen was considered classified, according to two people who have read the report

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department Inspector General concluded in a report filed Tuesday that the information Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared on a group Signal chat about a pending military operation in Yemen was considered classified, according to two people who have read the report.

The report outlines the findings of a more than eight-month investigation into Hegseth’s use of Signal, an encrypted but unclassified messaging app, to share details of the planned U.S. strikes in March before they had begun.

It found that the information Hegseth shared had been marked "secret" and could have imperiled American troops had it been intercepted by a foreign adversary, the two people who have read the report said. The evaluation by the Defense Department Inspector General also concluded that Hegseth violated military regulations by using his personal phone for official business, according to those people.

Hegseth, who declined an interview with investigators but provided them a brief written statement, has maintained that he shared no classified information on the group chat. Hegseth said in his statement to investigators that he provided only information that he thought would not imperil either the mission or the troops conducting it.

The investigators for the inspector general noted that they did not agree with that assessment, according to the people familiar with the report’s findings.