Hegseth could have endangered troop safety with Signal chat - Pentagon watchdog

US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth did not comply with Pentagon policy and potentially endangered military personnel when he used his personal phone and the Signal app to discuss an upcoming strike, an internal watchdog report found.

The Pentagon's Office of Inspector General conducted the inquiry after a journalist was mistakenly added to a chat about an operation against the Houthis, and later published its contents.

The inspector general did conclude Hegseth had legal authority to decide whether the information he shared was not classified, or could safely be declassified.

Hegseth said the findings showed "No classified information. Total exoneration."

The group chat leak - dubbed Signalgate - rocked the White House and sent Washington spinning just weeks into Trump's second term.

The incident raised serious questions about the administration's national security practices and compliance with laws governing classified information.

The Signal chat was revealed in The Atlantic in March, after its editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added by then-National Security Adviser Mike Waltz.

The chat showed Hegseth discussing specific targets, and timings for attacks, as well as the types of weapons that would be used.

According to the IG report, Hegseth derived the information he shared from a classified email labelled "SECRET//NOFORN" - meaning that its contents were secret, it could harm national security if it was released, and that it should not be viewed by any foreign national.

The inspector general determined that Hegseth "holds the authority to determine the required classification level of all DoD [Department of Defence] information he communicates."

But the office also found that the method of communication created risks for the military.

"Using a personal cell phone to conduct official business and send nonpublic Department of Defence information through Signal risks potential compromise of sensitive DoD information, which could cause harm to the DoD personnel and mission objectives," the report stated.

According to the IG report, Hegseth declined to be interviewed, and instead submitted a written statement.

The inquiry only received a partial copy of the Signal messages on his personal phone.

The inspector general therefore had to "rely in-part on the transcript the Atlantic posted publicly...for a full record."

The Trump administration has denied the information shared in the chat was classified. The inspector general did not determine whether Hegseth had made the decision to formally declassify it, which he has the power to do, before posting it in the chat.

Responding to the report, Hegseth posted on X: "No classified information. Total exoneration. Case closed. Houthis bombed into submission."

"Thank you for your attention to this IG report," he wrote to end the post, echoing how President Donald Trump frequently ends his social media posts.

The investigation was requested by the Republican-led Senate Armed Services Committee.

Most major departments in the US government have inspector generals, independent officials who conduct audits and investigations.

A spokesman for the Pentagon said the report is "a total exoneration of Secretary Hegseth and proves what we knew all along - no classified information was shared."

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that the report proves "no classified information was leaked, and operational security was not compromised".

But Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, called for Hegseth to resign after the report was delivered to Congress.

"An objective, evidence-based investigation by the Pentagon's internal watchdog leaves no doubt: Secretary Hegseth endangered the lives of American pilots," Warner said in a statement.

Warner said the report underscored "that this was not an isolated lapse. It reflects a broader pattern of recklessness and poor judgement from a secretary who has repeatedly shown he is in over his head."

Hegseth, who heads a military of more than 1 million service members, has been under scrutiny recently for overseeing a US attack on a boat carrying suspected drug traffickers.

He denies reports that he instructed troops to "kill all" of the suspects on the boat, and says he was not aware that there were survivors killed in a second airstrike on the target.