Hegseth endangered troops with Signal group chat, DOD report says

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Dec 3, 2025

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An official Department of Defense watchdog reportedly determined that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth risked endangering U.S. troops by sharing operational details of an attack on Houthi militants in Yemen in real time on a Signal group chat.

The Pentagon inspector general determined that Hegseth gave very specific updates on the missile strikes as they unfolded in March to the online group that accidentally included Atlantic magazine editor Jeffrey Goldberg, CNN reported Wednesday, quoting four sources familiar with the classified report.

“This is when the first bombs will drop,” Hegseth said in one message to the group created to discuss the attack plans.

The report said Hegseth should not have used Signal and that senior Defense Department officials need better training on communication protocols.

The report was provided to Hegseth and congressional leaders on Tuesday. An unclassified version of it is expected to be released publicly on Thursday.

Hegseth declined to be interviewed in person by the inspector general and instead chose to supply written answers to questions, CNN said.

It’s not clear what if any consequences Hegseth or anyone else will face as a result of their role in the scandal, which became public because Goldberg wrote about the disturbing breach of security.

Congress has said it plans bipartisan hearings on the matter.

The attack was considered a success and killed several leaders of the Yemeni militant group, which later declared a pause in its campaign of attacks on Western shipping in the Red Sea. It’s not known if the leaked Signal chat compromised any other military operations or intelligence-gathering sources and methods.

Hegseth and other Trump administration officials have insisted that no classified materials were shared in the chat, which included Vice President JD Vance, CIA director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.

The report casts doubt on that claim, noting that some operational information that was marked as classified was passed on to the group by Hegseth and that there is no evidence backing his assertion that he declassified it.

UN Ambassador Mike Waltz, who was then serving as White House national security adviser, admitted accidentally adding Goldberg to the group chat after apparently confusing his contact details with those of another aide.

The IG report amounts to another black eye for Hegseth, who is already facing major questions about his oversight of the U.S. campaign against alleged drug-trafficking boats off the coast of South America.

He claimed a senior Navy admiral ordered a legally dubious second strike on one boat that killed two survivors of an initial strike, an attack that critics say amounts to a war crime.