Pentagon watchdog has completed review of Hegseth’s use of Signal, sources say

By Natasha Bertrand, Zachary Cohen, CNN

(CNN) — The Pentagon’s internal watchdog has completed a monthslong review of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s use of Signal to discuss sensitive military operations and has submitted its findings to Hegseth for review, two people familiar with the matter told CNN.

Hegseth will now have the opportunity to comment and provide feedback on the Pentagon Inspector General’s findings, which is standard practice for such reviews, before the final report is provided to Congress in the coming days, the sources said. A version of it will likely be made public, one of the sources said.

The Office of the Inspector General declined to comment, telling CNN that “to protect the integrity of our process, we do not discuss ongoing reviews.”

Pentagon Press Secretary Kingsley Wilson told CNN that “per longstanding Department of War policy, we do not comment on ongoing investigations.” In July, however, Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell confirmed that Hegseth had provided a written statement to the inspector general and called the IG review “a political witch hunt by Biden administration holdovers” and “a sham, conducted in bad faith and with extreme bias.”

It is not yet clear what the final report will say, and Hegseth and his office have consistently denied that he shared any classified information on Signal.

The Pentagon’s inspector general launched the review in April after The Atlantic revealed that Hegseth had shared information from his Signal account related to US military operations in Yemen, which included precise details about the timing, choreography and assets involved in pending US strikes against the Houthi rebel group.

Following that report, the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee requested an IG review to determine whether Hegseth violated any laws related to the handling of classified information or records retention for federal employees.

Hegseth’s account shared details about the anti-Houthi military operation in at least two separate Signal group chats, one of which included his wife, brother, and personal lawyer, CNN has reported. One witness told the inspector general’s office over the course of the review that they recalled being a part of about a dozen separate Signal chats that included Hegseth, but it’s not clear if they all contained sensitive operational details, CNN also reported.

The inspector general examined whether anyone else could have physically entered the information into the Signal chat at Hegseth’s request, and asked witnesses whether others had access to his phone, CNN has reported.

The inspector general also received evidence that the military plans disclosed by Hegseth’s account were taken from a US Central Command document that was marked classified at the time.

The document was marked Secret/NOFORN, meaning no foreign nationals should see it, CNN reported. Hegseth has original classification authority, so he was authorized to declassify any information before he shared it, sources told CNN at the time. But it’s unclear if he did so.

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