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The Pentagon inspector general’s office said in a memo Thursday it will evaluate Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of Signal to discuss strikes against the Houthis in Yemen last month. “The objective of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other DoD personnel complied with DoD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business,” Acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins said in a memo. “Additionally, we will review compliance with classification and records retention requirements.”The chairman and Ranking Member of the Armed Services Committee requested that the inspector general investigate the use of the Signal chat to discuss the strikes. The messages posted by The Atlantic show that Hegseth texted the group specific weapons systems and launch times before strike operations were scheduled to start on March 15, 2025. The Atlantic reported that the messages in the chat were set to disappear after one week for some users, raising questions about whether or not the chat complied with records preservation regulations.
“Nobody’s texting war plans,” Hegseth said last week after The Atlantic published the messages. “There’s no units, no locations, no routes, no flight paths, no sources, no methods, no classified information.”But some lawmakers and experts have questioned the claim that the information wasn’t classified because the messages included the timing of strikes before they took place. The Inspector General Act of 1978, as the memo notes, authorizes inspectors general to have access to personnel and materials to perform their oversight function. Stebbins took over as the Pentagon’s acting inspector general after President Trump, upon taking office, fired a number of department watchdogs, including the Defense Department’s inspector general, Robert Storch. Some Democrats have called for Hegseth’s resignation over his use of Signal to disclose sensitive strike information.
Following the announcement of the probe, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee Sen. Jack Reed said in a statement, “The potentially deadly consequences from Secretary Hegseth’s blunder are chilling.””Whether intended or not, Secretary Hegseth endangered the lives of American servicemembers through his recklessness,” Reed said
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Eleanor Watson
Eleanor Watson is a CBS News multi-platform reporter and producer covering the Pentagon.
