"A long-awaited Department of Defense report found that US defense secretary Pete Hegseth violated departmental policies and put troops in danger when he shared secret information in a Signal messaging chat, a source familiar with the report said. The report centers on Hegseth's conduct before and during a planned airstrike in Yemen against Houthi fighters back in March. The Signal chat was disclosed after a reporter for the Atlantic was accidentally added as a member."
"The group also included JD Vance; the CIA director, John Ratcliffe; and the then-national security adviser, Mike Waltz. The report did not examine the conduct of those officials, since they do not work at the department of defense. The source said Hegseth refused to be interviewed by the inspector general, and instead provided a brief written statement in which he said he only shared information in the chat that would not have risked lives or endangered the mission, that he had the right to declassify material and that he considered the inspector general to be partisan."
"The report was shared with Congress, and an unclassified version is expected to be released later this week. The source said the report by the inspector general, the internal investigative agency for the defense department, found that the information Hegseth distributed was secret and could have endangered the lives of US troops if it had been intercepted by a foreign enemy force. Still, the report said that Hegseth had the ability to declassify the information he distributed, though it was unclear whether he did actually declassify it."
Pete Hegseth shared secret information in a Signal messaging chat that concerned a planned airstrike in Yemen against Houthi fighters. The chat included JD Vance, CIA director John Ratcliffe, and national security adviser Mike Waltz, and was exposed when an Atlantic reporter was accidentally added. Hegseth declined an inspector general interview and provided a brief written statement claiming the shared material would not risk lives, asserting declassification authority, and calling the inspector general partisan. The inspector general found the distributed information was secret and could have endangered US troops if intercepted, while noting Hegseth had the ability to declassify it.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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