The Pentagon’s acting inspector general said he will review Pete Hegseth’s use of the Signal messaging app after the US defence secretary used it to discuss airstrike plans.
The review will also look at other defence officials’ use of the publicly available encrypted app – which is not able to handle classified material and is not part of the US government’s secure network.
Last month, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief Jeffery Goldberg said he was added to a group chat on the platform by national security adviser Mike Waltz called “Houthi PC small group”, where plans to launch a strike on the Yemen militants were discussed.
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The journalist wrote that Mr Hegseth posted operational details of the plan, including weapon packages, targets and timing, into the group chat – which included vice president JD Vance and other officials.
The defence secretary initially told reporters no one had texted war plans, and US President Donald Trump said the texting of sensitive plans was “the only glitch in two months” and a non-issue.
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On Thursday, acting inspector general Steven Stebbins told Mr Hegseth in a notification letter that he will be reviewing the defence secretary and other defence officials’ use of Signal.
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“The objective of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other DoD [Department of Defense] personnel complied with DoD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business,” he wrote.
“Additionally, we will review compliance with classification and records retention requirements.”
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The review was launched at the request of Republican Senator Roger Wicker and Democratic Senator Jack Reed, chairman and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, respectively.
Mr Trump was urged to fire Mr Hegseth following The Atlantic’s reports. On Monday, Sky’s US partner network NBC News reported that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the “case has been closed here”.
