Washington, DC – The Pentagon’s acting inspector general has initiated a review into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s utilization of the Signal messaging app to communicate plans for a military strike against Houthi militants in Yemen. This examination extends to other defense officials who have been using the publicly available encrypted app, which lacks the capability to handle classified material and is not integrated into the Defense Department’s secure communications network.

Hegseth’s use of the Signal app came to public attention after journalist Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic was accidentally included in a Signal text chain by national security adviser Mike Waltz. The group involved Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and others, discussing military operations against the Iran-backed Houthis on March 15.

The inquiry aims to ascertain the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other Department of Defense (DoD) personnel adhered to DoD guidelines and procedures regarding the use of a commercial messaging application for official purposes. The review will also scrutinize compliance with classification and records retention criteria, as outlined by the acting inspector general, Steven Stebbins, in a notification letter sent to Hegseth.

Details shared by Hegseth in the Signal chat included precise timings of warplane launches and expected bomb drops, disclosed before the personnel involved in executing these attacks on behalf of the United States were even airborne. The enactment of this review was propelled by a request from Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the committee’s ranking Democrat.

In various congressional hearings, Democratic lawmakers have expressed unease about the employment of Signal and interrogated military officials on the appropriateness of using a commercial app to discuss military operations. Both current and former military figures have opined that the level of detail divulged by Hegseth on Signal would likely have been classified. Despite assertions from the Trump administration that no classified information was disclosed, concerns persist.