Pentagon IG To Investigate Pete Hegseth’s Signal Use

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s independent watchdog announced on Thursday that it is reviewing how Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth used Signal in a group chat with top National Security officials as they discussed military strikes against the Houthis.

Acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins shared the news in a letter to Hegseth, noting that the evaluation is in response to a request from the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee who asked for an investigation into Hegseth’s use of “an unclassified commercially available messaging application,” as Stebbins wrote.

“The objective of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other DoD personnel complied with DoD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business,” Stebbins said in the letter. “Additionally, we will review compliance with classification and records retention requirements. We may revise the objective as the evaluation proceeds.”

Both the White House and Hegseth himself have maintained that the information shared in the Signal chat was not classified.

In mid March, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, a journalist known for his critical pieces on Trump, revealed that he had been inadvertently added to a national security group chat in which top Trump officials discussed airstrikes in Yemen. That chat included Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and other members of Trump’s inner circle on March 15, as the national security team deliberated launching airstrikes on the Houthis.

The White House confirmed shortly after Goldberg published his story that the chat appeared to be authentic, and has since said that no classified information was shared. Hegseth has also pushed back against the notion that “war plans” were shared, and the entire Trump team has aggressively messaged that The Atlantic is a liberal, anti-Trump publication — and that Goldberg himself is a hack.

The evaluation will be performed in accordance with the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency “Quality Standards for Inspection and Evaluation,” Stebbins said, and it will be performed in Washington, D.C., and at the U.S. Central Command Headquarters in Tampa, Florida — though they may identify additional locations during the evaluation.

“We request that you designate two points of contact for this evaluation within 5 days of this memorandum,” the letter states. “One point of contact should be a Government employee—a GS-15, pay band equivalent, or military equivalent—who is knowledgeable of the subject. The second point of contact should be a member of the Senior Executive Service or a General/Flag Officer who is familiar with the subject and could serve as a point of engagement with DoD Office of Inspector General senior leaders, if necessary.”