Overview
- The Dec. 4 inspector general report finds that on March 15 Hegseth relayed nonpublic details, including aircraft quantities and strike times, in a Signal group chat from his personal device.
- Investigators say the messages were sent two to four hours before planned Yemen strikes after he received the information from a secure CENTCOM email.
- The watchdog concludes the conduct breached DoD Instruction 8170.01 and created risk that could have caused failed objectives or harm to U.S. pilots.
- The review says required records were not preserved, noting autodeleting chats, lack of access to Hegseth’s phone, and reliance on excerpts published by The Atlantic.
- Hegseth and his spokesman called the review a “total exoneration,” a characterization contradicted by the report’s findings and flagged by independent fact-checkers.