Pentagon Inspector General expands investigation into Pete Hegseth’s use of Signal

The expanded investigation increases the risks for Hegseth, who has denied posting classified information and said the controversy over his use of Signal has been fuelled by leaks from opponents.

The Pentagon inspector general has expanded an investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s sharing of military plans to a second Signal chat that included his wife and brother, according to a congressional aide and another person familiar with the inquiry.

Acting Inspector General Stephen Stebbins announced last month that he was investigating Hegseth’s use of “an unclassified commercially available messaging application” to discuss US air strikes in Yemen. The move pertained to a Signal chat involving Hegseth and other senior administration officials disclosed by the Atlantic magazine in March.

It hasn’t been clear before that the probe also is examining another Hegseth chat, which was disclosed by the New York Times after Stebbins’s announcement. The expanded investigation increases the risks for Hegseth, who has denied posting classified information and said the controversy over his use of Signal has been fuelled by leaks from opponents.

President Trump said Thursday he planned to shift national security adviser Mike Waltz – who lost favour within the White House in part because of his role in the Signal controversy – out of his post. Waltz will be nominated to be ambassador to the United Nations, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio will take over as national security adviser on an interim basis, Trump said.

US Attorney-General Pam Bondi (R) and US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth speak during the National Day of Prayer event. Picture; AFP.

The Pentagon inspector general is focused, in part, on who took information from a government system for highly-classified information and put it into Hegseth’s commercial Signal app, the person familiar with the inquiry said.

In the hours before the March 15 strikes on Yemen, Army Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, commander of US Central Command, which is responsible for military operations in the Middle East, sent the Pentagon strikes plans through a secure email that could only be read on a highly classified computer system.

Minutes after Kurilla sent his message, some of the details appeared in at least one of the Signal chats involving Hegseth, defence officials said.

It is impossible to quickly copy and paste information from a classified system to an unclassified one, requiring any information to be manually typed. The inspector general is seeking to determine who did so, the person familiar with the investigation said.

In addition to Hegseth, there were Pentagon aides nearby when the message from Kurilla arrived, defence officials have said.

Hegseth shared some of the most sensitive information, including specific times that F-18s, MQ-9 Reaper drones and Tomahawk cruise missiles would be used in the March 15 attack, according to a transcript of the first Signal chat released by the Atlantic, whose editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was inadvertently added.

Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island, the top-ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said the second Signal chat was within the inspector general’s purview. “It is so similar and it raises the same issues as the initial chat,” Reed said.

Republican lawmakers voiced support for Hegseth but several said they were awaiting the results of the investigation.

“I absolutely have confidence in him,” said Sen. Roger Wicker (R., Miss.), in reference to Hegseth. Wicker, as Armed Services Committee chairman, requested the probe with Reed and said he expects the Pentagon IG’s probe to include the second Signal chain.

“It is clearly, to me, at best a rookie mistake, at worst really bad judgment,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.), “I’m just trying to figure out which one it was.” Tillis cast the decisive 50th vote to confirm Hegseth.

Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) added: “I think the IG investigation into the Signal is important. I will wait to see what they come up with.” Under the terms of the investigation, Stebbins’s office could examine the second Signal chat without notifying Capitol Hill, defence officials said.

“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 office said in its announcement of the probe.

It is unclear when the investigation will be complete.

Hegseth created the second Signal chat group before his Senate confirmation hearing to become defence chief in January, adding family members, aides and others, according to people familiar with the group. It remained active after he took office.

The Pentagon declined to comment.

Trump has said recently that he had spoken to his defence chief about his recent running of the Pentagon, including the use of Signal and the firing of top aides. “Pete’s gone through a hard time. I think he’s gonna get it together,” Trump told the Atlantic. “He has been beat up by this, very much so. But I had a talk with him, a positive talk, but I had a talk with him.” Dow Jones