Pentagon watchdog to review Hegseth’s use of Signal app for Houthi strike plans
Use of the messaging app was brought to light when a journalist was accidentally added to a group chat.
The Pentagon’s acting inspector general has announced that he will review defence secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the Signal messaging app to convey plans for a military strike against Houthi militants in Yemen.
The review will also look at other defence officials’ use of the publicly available encrypted app, which is not able to handle classified material and is not part of the department of defence’s (DoD) secure communications network.
Mr Hegseth’s use of the app came to light when a journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, was added to a Signal text chain by national security adviser Mike Waltz.
The chain included Mr Hegseth, vice president JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio, director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and others, brought together to discuss military operations against the Iran-backed Houthis.
In a notification letter to Mr Hegseth, Steven Stebbins, the acting inspector general, said: “The objective of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defence and other DoD personnel complied with DoD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business.
“Additionally, we will review compliance with classification and records retention requirements.”
In the chain, Mr Hegseth provided the exact timings of warplane launches and when bombs would drop — before the men and women carrying out those attacks on behalf of the United States were airborne.
The review was launched at the request of Senator Roger Wicker, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Rhode Island Senator Jack Reed, the committee’s top Democrat.
In congressional hearings, Democratic officials have expressed concern about the use of Signal and pressed military officers on whether they would find it appropriate to use the commercial app to discuss military operations.
Both current and former military officials have said the level of detail Mr Hegseth shared on Signal most likely would have been classified.
The Trump administration has insisted no classified information was shared.
