Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth violated Defense Department policy and put troops at risk by using his personal cell phone to share sensitive military information in a group chat, according to a report released Thursday by the Pentagon's Office of the Inspector General.
The 84-page unclassified report details a March incident in which Hegseth shared what the inspector general described as "sensitive, nonpublic, operational information" in a Signal group chat with 19 people, including Cabinet officials and a journalist. The journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, was inadvertently added to the conversation by Mike Waltz, then the national security adviser.
Waltz eventually left his role in the president's inner circle to become the ambassador to the United Nations, with Hegseth coming out of the scandal relatively unscathed — until now.
The full classified report was reviewed by members of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees before its public release, and is the most detailed official account yet of the security breach.
The Pentagon's chief spokesman, Sean Parnell, asserted that the inspector general's review was a "total exoneration" of Hegseth, and said it concluded that no classified information was shared. Although that assertion is contradicted by the report, here's why it's unlikely any action will taken against the secretary.
This is a preview of Julia Jester's latest article. Read the full article here.
