The Pentagon’s official watchdog revealed Thursday that it is conducting an investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s role in Signalgate.
Hegseth had sent detailed attack plans to a Signal group chat of top Trump administration officials on March 15 that inadvertently included Atlantic editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg, who later published the messages.
Here is the latest on the Yemen Signal group-chat:
“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,” the Pentagon’s Office of the Inspector General revealed in a Thursday memo.
Breaking down the military terms used in Signal group chat
- “Trigger Based” = Sensors used to confirm ID of target
- “Strike Drones on Target” = Drones bomb target
- “Sea-based Tomahawks” = Cruise missiles fired from at least one submarine
- “OPSEC” = Operational security
- “Positive ID” = Terrorist’s ID confirmed
- BDA = Battle damage assessment after strike
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and ranking member Jack Reed (D-RI) had called on the Pentagon’s watchdog to conduct an investigation into the Signalgate debacle last month.
Hegseth has denied sending “war plans.” Top Trump administration spy bosses including director of national intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA director John Ratcliffe have said that Hegseth would’ve been the one to determine whether or not the material he shared in the leaked Signal chat was classified.
