Hegseth Risked Endangering Troops With Signal Messages

[LetMyPeopleVote]

Source: Atlantic

For nearly nine months, Trump-administration officials have defended top national-security leaders who shared information in a Signal chat about U.S. strikes in Yemen, first reported by The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, who was inadvertently included in the group. Officials played down the severity of the breach and insisted that the information wasn’t classified.

Now the Pentagon’s top watchdog has concluded that the information Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared in the chat could have put the mission, U.S. personnel, and national security at risk had it fallen into the wrong hands. The information Hegseth shared included the precise times that fighter pilots would attack their targets. If Houthi militants had learned those details in advance, they might have been able to shoot down American planes or better defend their positions.

The Defense Department Inspector General found that while the mission ultimately was not jeopardized, Hegseth violated his department’s own policies when he used Signal, a commercial messaging app that is not approved for sharing classified information. The IG’s report, scheduled to be published on Thursday, was described to us by numerous U.S. officials familiar with its findings.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did an attorney for Hegseth.

Senator Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat who sits on the Armed Services Committee, said that the report found Hegseth was in violation of Pentagon regulations. “They very clearly stated he should not be using his cell phone and putting this kind of information on an unclassified system,” he told reporters on Capitol Hill.

Read more: https://www.theatlantic.com/national-security/2025/12/hegseth-signalgate-trump-defense-pentagon/684997/?gift=SCYx-5scVta3-cr_IlgTyYEJZkl_kh91X112w2dwAUw

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Breaking: Hegseth Risked Endangering Troops With Signal Messages

— Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry.theatlantic.com) 2025-12-03T18:07:02.813Z

[LetMyPeopleVote]

1. Exclusive: Watchdog finds Hegseth risked endangering troops by sharing sensitive war plans on Signal, sources say

Hegseth needs to go

Exclusive: Watchdog finds Hegseth risked endangering troops by sharing sensitive war plans on Signal, sources say

From me and Zach Cohen

www.cnn.com/2025/12/03/p...

— Jake Tapper, long-suffering Philly sports fan (@jaketapper.bsky.social) 2025-12-03T17:36:02.581Z

https://www.cnn.com/2025/12/03/politics/watchdog-report-hegseth-signal

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth risked compromising sensitive military information, which could have endangered American troops and mission objectives, when he used Signal in March of this year to share highly-sensitive attack plans targeting Houthi rebels in Yemen, according to four sources familiar with the contents of a classified Inspector General report.

The repercussions of Hegseth’s action, two sources told CNN, are less clear since the IG concluded that the defense secretary has the authority to declassify information and Hegseth asserted he made an operational decision in the moment to share that information, though there is no documentation of such a decision.

An unclassified version of the report is set to be publicly released Thursday. The classified report was sent to Congress on Tuesday night.

Messages sent from Hegseth’s Signal account to the group chat, the contents of which sources previously confirmed to CNN included material from documents marked classified at the time they were sent, offered specific, real-time updates about planned military strikes. They were so specific that one even read: “This is when the first bombs will drop.”....

The release of the investigation could compound existing concerns voiced by lawmakers from both sides of the aisle about Hegseth’s judgement and bring renewed attention to an issue that nearly led to his firing several months ago, CNN has reported.

[Initech]

2. This is why you shouldn't put Fox News hosts in charge of anything.

[Bayard]

3. So many actions committed by this buffoon that would have had a Dem out on their ass

He's incompetent, a disgrace, and an embarrassment to this nation. Like his boss.