Hegseth under increasing scrutiny

Defense chief put personnel, mission at risk with use of Signal, watchdog report finds.

- LISA MASCARO AND BEN FINLEY

DEFENSE Secretary Pete Hegseth has asserted that the information in the Signal chats, which included the timing of warplane launches, was unclassified.

ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS AFP/Getty Images

The Pentagon's watchdog found that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth put U.S. personnel and their mission at risk when he used the Signal messaging app to convey sensitive information about a military strike against Yemen's Houthi militants, two people familiar with the findings said Wednesday.

Hegseth, however, has the ability to declassify material and the report did not find he did so improperly, according to one of the people familiar with the findings who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the information. That person also said the report concluded that Hegseth violated Pentagon policy by using his personal device for official business, and it recommended better training for all Pentagon officials.

Hegseth declined to sit for an interview with the Pentagon’s inspector general but provided a written statement, that person said. The Defense secretary asserted that he was permitted to declassify information as he saw fit and communicated only details he thought would not endanger the mission.

The initial findings ramp up the pressure on the former Fox News Channel host after lawmakers had called for the independent inquiry into his use of the commercially available app.

Lawmakers also just opened investigations into a news report that a followup strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean Sea in September killed survivors after Hegseth issued a verbal order to “kill everybody.”

Hegseth defended the strike as emerging in the “fog of war,” saying he didn’t see any survivors but also “didn’t stick around” for the rest of the mission and that the admiral in charge “made the right call” in ordering the second strike.