DoD watchdog confirms Hegseth's Signal chat broke regulations, sources report

Washington The Department of Defenses internal oversight office concluded that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth compromised classified military information and may have put American troops at risk by sharing details of U.S. operations in Yemen through a private Signal chat earlier this year, according to officials familiar with the findings.

Sources told CBS News that the report determined Hegseth, previously a Fox News host, violated Pentagon policies by using his personal device to transmit sensitive military data to top Trump administration officials and the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the report has not yet been publicly released.

A classified copy of the inspector generals report was sent to Congress on Tuesday, with an unredacted version expected on Thursday. CNN first reported the findings of the defense watchdog.

The report confirmed earlier CBS News reporting from July that information shared by Hegseth in the encrypted chat originated from a classified email marked "SECRET//NOFORN." The details had been provided by Army Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, then commander of U.S. Central Command, which oversees American military operations in the Middle East, Central Asia, and parts of South Asia.

The "SECRET" classification indicates that unauthorized disclosure could seriously harm national security and threaten service members. The "NOFORN" label restricts sharing to U.S. agencies and personnel only, barring foreign nationals, even allies.

According to the sources, the inspector generals report warned that if the information had been intercepted by a foreign adversary, it could have put both U.S. troops and missions in jeopardy. The report does not clarify whether Hegseth declassified the material before sharing it in the Signal chat, which also included other senior Trump officials and unintentionally, Jeffrey Goldberg, who later reported the story in March.

Author: Benjamin Carter