Pentagon watchdog investigates if staffers were asked to delete
Hegseth’s Signal messages
[June 07, 2025]
By TARA COPP
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon's watchdog is looking into whether any of
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's aides were asked to delete Signal
messages that may have shared sensitive military information with a
reporter, according to two people familiar with the investigation and
documents reviewed by The Associated Press.
The inspector general's request focuses on how information about the
March 15 airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen was shared on the
messaging app.
This comes as Hegseth is scheduled to testify before Congress next week
for the first time since his confirmation hearing. He is likely to face
questions under oath not only about his handling of sensitive
information but also the wider turmoil at the Pentagon following the
departures of several senior aides and an internal investigation over
information leaks.
Hegseth already has faced questions over the installation of an
unsecured internet line in his office that bypassed the Pentagon’s
security protocols and revelations that he shared details about the
military strikes in multiple Signal chats.
One of the chats included his wife and brother, while the other included
President Donald Trump’s top national security officials and
inadvertently included The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg.
Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson had no comment Friday, citing
the pending investigation. The inspector general’s office would not
discuss the details of the investigation but said that when the report
is complete, their office will release unclassified portions of it to
the public.
Besides finding out whether anyone was asked to delete Signal messages,
the inspector general also is asking some past and current staffers who
were with Hegseth on the day of the strikes who posted the information
and who had access to his phone, according to the two people familiar
with the investigation and the documents reviewed by the AP. The people
were not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on the
condition of anonymity.
Democratic lawmakers and a small number of Republicans have said that
the information Hegseth posted to the Signal chats before the military
jets had reached their targets could have put those pilots' lives at
risk and that for any lower-ranking members of the military it would
have led to their firing.
Hegseth has said none of the information was classified. Multiple
current and former military officials have said there is no way details
with that specificity, especially before a strike took place, would have
been OK to share on an unsecured device.
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U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivers a speech at the US
cemetery to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the D-Day landings,
Friday, June 6, 2025 in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy. (AP
Photo/Thomas Padilla)
“I said repeatedly, nobody is texting war plans,” Hegseth told Fox
News Channel in April after reporting emerged about the chat that
included his family members. “I look at war plans every day. What
was shared over Signal then and now, however you characterize it,
was informal, unclassified coordinations, for media coordinations
and other things. That’s what I’ve said from the beginning.”
Trump has made clear that Hegseth continues to have his support,
saying during a Memorial Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery
in Virginia that the defense secretary “went through a lot” but
“he's doing really well.”
Hegseth has limited his public engagements with the press since the
Signal controversy. He has yet to hold a Pentagon press briefing,
and his spokesman has briefed reporters there only once.
The inspector general is investigating Hegseth at the request of the
Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Sen.
Roger Wicker of Mississippi, and the committee's top Democrat, Sen.
Jack Reed of Rhode Island.
Signal is a publicly available app that provides encrypted
communications, but it can be hacked and is not approved for
carrying classified information. On March 14, one day before the
strikes against the Houthis, the Defense Department cautioned
personnel about the vulnerability of the app.
Trump has said his administration targeted the Houthis over their
“unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence and terrorism.” He has
noted the disruption Houthi attacks caused through the Red Sea and
the Gulf of Aden, key waterways for energy and cargo shipments
between Asia and Europe through Egypt’s Suez Canal.
The Houthi rebels attacked more than 100 merchant vessels with
missiles and drones, sinking two vessels and killing four sailors,
between November 2023 until January this year. Their leadership
described the attacks as aimed at ending the Israeli war against
Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
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