The report outlines the findings of a more than eight-month investigation into Hegseth’s use of Signal to share details of planned U.S. strikes in Yemen.

WASHINGTON — The Defense Department Inspector General concluded in a report filed Tuesday that the information Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared on a group Signal chat about a pending military operation in Yemen was considered classified, according to two people who have read the report.

The report outlines the findings of a more than eight-month investigation into Hegseth’s use of Signal, an encrypted but unclassified messaging app, to share details of the planned U.S. strikes in March before they had begun.

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It found that the information Hegseth shared had been marked “secret” and could have imperiled American troops had it been intercepted by a foreign adversary, the two people who have read the report said. The evaluation by the Defense Department Inspector General also concluded that Hegseth violated military regulations by using his personal phone for official business, according to those people.

Hegseth, who declined an interview with investigators but provided them a brief written statement, has maintained that he shared no classified information on the group chat. Hegseth said in his statement to investigators that he provided only information that he thought would not imperil either the mission or the troops conducting it.

The investigators for the inspector general noted that they did not agree with that assessment, according to the people familiar with the report’s findings.

The report also said that Hegseth, as the secretary of defense, is the “original classification authority” and in fact does have the authority to declassify intelligence based on his judgment.

But the inspector general did not address whether Hegseth took the proper steps to declassify the information shared in the chat, the two people said.

In a post on X Wednesday night, Hegseth wrote: “No classified information. Total exoneration. Case closed.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement earlier in the day that the review “affirms what the Administration has said from the beginning — no classified information was leaked, and operational security was not compromised.”

“President Trump stands by Secretary Hegseth,” she added.

Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, who sits on the Armed Services Committee, which oversees the Pentagon, spoke to reporters after reading the report.

“It said he was in violation of some DOD regulations,” Kelly said. “So whether that’s breaking the law, you got to figure that out.”

Added Kelly: “He needs to make sure he doesn’t do this again because the next time something really, really bad could happen.”

The IG report was delivered to the Senate and House Armed Services and Intelligence committees, and lawmakers were reviewing it Wednesday, congressional aides said. A redacted version has not been released publicly.

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The group chat, which included other top members of President Donald Trump’s national security team, became public after an editor for The Atlantic magazine was inadvertently added.

The report noted that Hegseth provided investigators with only a small number of his Signal messages, so the inspector general relied on the screenshots that were later published by The Atlantic.

NBC News has reported that minutes before U.S. fighter jets took off to begin their strikes against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen in March, Army Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, who led U.S. Central Command at the time, used a secure U.S. government system to send detailed information about the operation to Hegseth.

The material Kurilla sent included details about when U.S. fighters would take off and when they would hit their targets — information that, if it fell into the wrong hands, could have put the pilots of those jets into grave danger, NBC News has reported.

Much of that same information appeared on the Signal chat that Hegseth shared with other top Trump administration officials, and, on a separate chat, with members of his family and his personal attorney, three U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the exchanges told NBC News.

The release of the report comes at a sensitive moment for Hegseth, who is currently under scrutiny over a decision to launch a second military strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean Sea that the Pentagon said was carrying 11 individuals. The first strike left at least two survivors.

“I didn’t personally see survivors,” Hegseth told reporters during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday. “The thing was on fire. It was exploded in fire and smoke. You can’t see it.”

He added, “This is called the fog of war.”

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A long-awaited Department of Defense report found that US defense secretary Pete Hegseth violated departmental policies and put troops in danger when he shared secret information in a Signal messaging chat, a source familiar with the report said.

The report centers on Hegseth’s conduct before and during a planned airstrike in Yemen against Houthi fighters back in March. The Signal chat was disclosed after a reporter for the Atlantic was accidentally added as a member. The group also included JD Vance; the CIA director, John Ratcliffe; and the then-national security adviser, Mike Waltz. The report did not examine the conduct of those officials, since they do not work at the department of defense.

The source said Hegseth refused to be interviewed by the inspector general, and instead provided a brief written statement in which he said he only shared information in the chat that would not have risked lives or endangered the mission, that he had the right to declassify material and that he considered the inspector general to be partisan.

The report was shared with Congress, and an unclassified version is expected to be released later this week.

Pentagon report concludes Hegseth put troops in danger with Signal chat

The source said the report by the inspector general, the internal investigative agency for the defense department, found that the information Hegseth distributed was secret and could have endangered the lives of US troops if it had been intercepted by a foreign enemy force.

Still, the report said that Hegseth had the ability to declassify the information he distributed, though it was unclear whether he did actually declassify it.

The source said Hegseth refused to be interviewed by the inspector general, and instead provided a brief written statement in which he said he only shared information in the chat that would not have risked lives or endangered the mission, that he had the right to declassify material, and that he considered the inspector general to be partisan.

The report was shared with Congress, and an unclassified version is expected to be released later this week.

In response, Democratic congressman Mark Warner, vice-chair of the Senate intelligence committee, called for Hegseth to resign on Wednesday.

“An objective, evidence-based investigation by the Pentagon’s internal watchdog leaves no doubt: Secretary Hegseth endangered the lives of American pilots based aboard the USS Harry S. Truman as they prepared to launch a mission against terrorist targets. By sharing classified operational details on an unsecure group chat on his personal phone, he created unacceptable risks to their safety and to our operational security.

“The report also notes that the IG is aware of several other Signal chats Hegseth used for official business, underscoring that this was not an isolated lapse. It reflects a broader pattern of recklessness and poor judgment from a secretary who has repeatedly shown he is in over his head.

“Our servicemembers, including those stationed in Virginia and around the world, expect and deserve leaders who honor the sacrifices they make every day to protect our nation and never put them at unnecessary risk. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Pete Hegseth should resign, or the president must remove him at once.”

But Hegseth posted on Twitter/X rebuffing critics on Wednesday evening.

“No classified information. Total exoneration. Case closed. Houthis bombed into submission. Thank you for your attention to this IG report,” he wrote.