Pentagon inspector general to investigate Pete Hegseth's role in Signal chat leak
The announcement comes about 10 days after The Atlantic revealed that its editor-in-chief was inadvertently added to a Signal group chat that included Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, national security adviser Mike Waltz and other senior administration officials discussing upcoming military actions.
'The objective of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other [Department of Defense] personnel complied with DoD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business,' acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins wrote in a memo to Hegseth.
Stebbins said his decision to conduct the review was spurred by a March 26 letter from Sens. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Jack Reed, D-R.I., the chair and ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. In their letter, the senators asked Stebbins to 'conduct an inquiry' into whether Hegseth shared sensitive or classified information in the group chat.
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Specifically, Wicker and Reed asked Stebbins to determine what exactly Hegseth communicated in the chat and whether he'd adhered to the Pentagon's classification and declassification policies as well as its policies on sharing sensitive and classified information on nongovernment networks and devices. They further requested information on whether the White House, Pentagon, National Security Council and other departments all have the same policies for communicating this kind of information.
Hegseth and other senior administration officials have repeatedly denied that he shared classified info in the group chat.
The inspector general inquiry will also look at whether rules about records retention were followed.
The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg wrote last week that Waltz added him to a Signal group chat called 'Houthi PC small group' where Vance, Waltz, Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and others discussed plans to strike Houthi militants in Yemen.
After Hegseth and the White House denied any classified information or specific plans were disclosed in the chat, The Atlantic published a full transcript of the conversation, which included Hegseth sharing operational details ahead of the attack.
Those details included the timing and nature of specific strikes, using language like, '1410: More F-18s LAUNCH,' and '1536 F-18 2nd Strike Starts – also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched.'
President Donald Trump told NBC News last weekend that no one involved in the Signal group chat would be fired.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
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