Unclassified report on Hegseth’s use of Signal details risk to troops, lack of cooperation with investigation

By Zachary Cohen, CNN

(CNN) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information that could have endangered US troops through his use of Signal to discuss attack plans, a Pentagon watchdog said in an unclassified report released Thursday. It also details how Hegseth declined to fully cooperate with the probe.

The investigation was launched in April after reports that Hegseth had used the commercial communications application to share details about an upcoming operation targeting Houthi rebels in Yemen with reporter Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic accidentally included in the message chain.

“The Secretary’s transmission of nonpublic operational information over Signal to an uncleared journalist and others 2 to 4 hours before planned strikes using his personal cell phone exposed sensitive DoD information,” the Inspector General report says. “The Secretary’s actions created a risk to operational security that could have resulted in failed U.S. mission objectives and potential harm to U.S. pilots.”

On Wednesday, CNN first reported details of the classified version of the IG report, which was sent to Congress on Tuesday, including the watchdog’s conclusion that Hegseth’s use of Signal could have endangered American troops.

In response to that reporting, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said the IG’s report proved that the defense secretary had not done anything wrong.

“The Inspector General review is a TOTAL exoneration of Secretary Hegseth and proves what we knew all along – no classified information was shared. This matter is resolved, and the case is closed,” Parnell wrote in an email to CNN using language that he later repeated on social media.

Hegseth himself shared a post on social media Wednesday night that also said he had been exonerated.

But that claim diverges sharply from the IG’s findings, according to the unclassified report, which repeatedly refers to how Hegseth’s actions created unnecessary risk to American service members and the mission itself.

“Using a personal cell phone to conduct official business and send nonpublic DoD information through Signal risks potential compromise of sensitive DoD information, which could cause harm to DoD personnel and mission objectives,” the report said.

The IG did not assess whether Hegseth had shared classified information, or properly declassified it, citing Hegseth’s authorities as secretary to unilaterally dictate what is protected information. The report does, however, make clear that the details of the attack plans themselves originated from a document that was marked classified at the time it was sent — confirming details first reported by CNN.

“Based on our review, we concluded that some information the Secretary sent from his personal cell phone on Signal on March 15, 2025, matched the operational information USCENTCOM sent and classified as SECRET//NOFORN.”

Hegseth declines to fully cooperate

The unclassified report also confirms that Hegesth declined to sit for an in-person interview with the IG as part of its investigation. While the IG does not have the power to compel an official to appear for an interview, it is “highly unusual” for senior officials to decline, Mark Lee Greenblatt, former Inspector General for the US Interior and Chair of the Inspector General Council, said.

“Such a refusal prevents the OIG from asking their own questions, probe the witness’s memory with follow-up questions, and assess the witness’s credibility,” he told CNN. “And for someone like the Secretary of Defense, it’s highly likely that administration’s lawyers and other non-witnesses may have been involved in writing Hegseth’s statement, which runs the risk of straying from the witness’s actual recollections.”

Hegseth similarly did not turn over his personal device as part of this IG investigation despite, the fact that the report emphasizes that his use of that phone was in violation of DoD policy, according to two sources familiar with the probe.

That is also unusual and breaks with legal statutes empowering Inspectors General, Greenblatt said.

“Under the IG Act, IGs are entitled access to all materials in the agency, which can include government phones of senior officials’. If the phone had relevant evidence, the OIG should have had access to it or an image/copy.”

As a result, the IG relied heavily on Hegseth’s written responses, which said the information he shared via Signal was not classified, citing his broad authority as defense secretary to determine what is protected behind classification.

“I took non-specific general details which I determined, in my sole discretion, were either not classified, or that I could safely declassify” and created an “unclassified summary” of the USCENTCOM strike details to provide to participants of the Signal chat,” Hegseth said in his written responses, according to the unclassified IG report.

Despite acknowledging that Hegseth does have broad authorities when it comes to declassifying defense information, the report also suggests Hegseth’s written answers may have further confirmed the IG’s ultimate conclusion that he violated DoD policy by sending “sensitive, nonpublic, operational information over Signal.

“Based on the Secretary’s written statement indicating that he sent sensitive, nonpublic, operational information over Signal from his personal cell phone 2 to 4 hours before the strikes occurred, we concluded that the Secretary’s actions did not comply with DoDI 8170.01, which prohibits using a personal device for official business and using a nonapproved commercially available messaging application to send nonpublic DoD information,” the report states citing a Pentagon policy on devices.

‘The Secretary’s action’s created a risk’

The report also took issue with a portion of Hegseth’s written statement in which he claimed “there were no details that would endanger our troops or the mission” in his Singal messages – concluding that the substance of the information he shared suggested otherwise.

“The Secretary sent information identifying the quantity and strike times of manned U.S. aircraft over hostile territory over an unapproved, unsecure network approximately 2 to 4 hours before the execution of those strikes,” the report says. “Although the Secretary wrote in his July 25 statement to the DoD OIG that ‘there were no details that would endanger our troops or the mission,’ if this information had fallen into the hands of U.S. adversaries, Houthi forces might have been able to counter U.S. forces or reposition personnel and assets to avoid planned U.S. strikes.”

“Even though these events did not ultimately occur, the Secretary’s actions created a risk to operational security that could have resulted in failed US mission objectives and potential harm to US pilots,” it adds.

Republicans on Capitol Hill have offered mixed reactions to the IG’s findings, but several have stopped short of offering their full support for the embattled Hegseth.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Thursday Hegseth “serves at the pleasure of the president,” even as he acknowledged the Signal controversy was a “mistake” that should not be repeated.

“I think that ultimately, the metric by which I would measure is: are we safer today? And I think that arguably, you look at the prior administration, I don’t think there’s any question about that,” he said when asked if it was appropriate for Hegseth to continue to lead the department.

He was pressed by CNN if the country would be even safer if someone other than Hegseth, who has been battered by controversy, was in charge, but he didn’t directly answer.

“The Signalgate issue, I think, everybody’s acknowledged was a mistake. Hopefully, they’ve learned from it and can do it better,” he said. “But again, he serves at the pleasure of the president, and I think as I observe what’s happening both here at home and around the world, I think our country and our world are safer places because of this administration’s leadership.”

Read the unclassified IG report here.

Jake Tapper and Natasha Bertrand contributed to this report

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