The Pentagon’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report on War Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of Signal after investigating the matter for months.
“We concluded that the Secretary sent sensitive, nonpublic, operational information that he determined did not require classification over the Signal chat on his personal cell phone,” the report says. “The Secretary is the head original classification authority in the DoD based on Executive Order 13526 and DoD Manual 5200.45 and holds the authority to determine the required classification level of all DoD information he communicates.” Because Hegseth used Signal on his personal cell phone, however, the inspector general “concluded that the Secretary’s actions did not comply with DoD Instruction 8170.01, which prohibits using a personal device for official business and using a nonapproved commercially available messaging application to send nonpublic DoD information.”
Hegseth’s use of a personal cell phone risked a “potential compromise of sensitive DoD information, which could cause harm to DoD personnel and mission objectives,” the report notes.
Although the Secretary stated that there were no details in the messages that could endanger U.S. troops or threaten its mission against Houthi forces, the terrorist group “might have been able to counter U.S. forces or reposition personnel and assets to avoid planned U.S. strike” had it obtained the messages, the watchdog’s report adds. Such risks “threatened operational security that could have resulted in failed U.S. mission objectives and potential harm to U.S. pilots.”
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell declared that the report is a “TOTAL exoneration of Secretary Hegseth and proves what we knew all along – no classified information was shared.”
Hegseth stated: “No classified information. Total exoneration. Case closed. Houthis bombed into submission. Thank you for your attention to this IG report.”
The War Department’s OIG announced the probe in April. “The purpose of this memorandum is to notify you that we are initiating the subject evaluation,” a memo read. “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.”
