The Department of Defense Inspector General has launched a formal investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of Signal after leaked messages detailed Yemen strike discussions.

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom

The Department of Defense Office of Inspector General (OIG) has opened an investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the Signal messaging app, following the leak of a group chat that included conversations about military strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen. The OIG confirmed the probe Thursday, citing a request from the Senate Armed Services Committee to evaluate whether Hegseth followed Department of Defense policies in using a “commercial messaging application for official business,” according to the OIG memo.

The group chat in question, titled “Houthi PC Small Group,” became public after National Security Advisor Mike Waltz mistakenly added Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg to the thread. Goldberg initially broke the story on March 24, including screenshots of the text chain, in which officials discussed timelines for strikes against the Houthis. Among those in the chat were Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Vice President JD Vance.

The OIG’s memo stated, “Additionally, we will review compliance with classification and records retention requirements. We may revise the objective as the evaluation proceeds.”

White House officials said no classified information or actionable “war plans” were exchanged in the chat, though Goldberg followed up on March 26 with additional content that suggested operational details were indeed discussed. Goldberg’s reporting included Hegseth’s description of the timing of planned military strikes, which reportedly matched the actual orders later executed.

Hegseth responded to the controversy in a March 26 post on X, dismissing the leak’s significance. “So, let’s me get this straight. The Atlantic released the so-called ‘war plans’ and those ‘plans’ include: No names. No targets. No locations. No units. No routes. No sources. No methods. And no classified information,” Hegseth wrote. “Those are some really shitty war plans.”

The fallout from the incident has stirred internal friction within the administration. According to Politico, some officials privately called for Waltz’s dismissal, though President Donald Trump stood by his national security advisor, saying on March 25 that Waltz is a “good man” who “learned his lesson.”

Waltz has since denied knowingly adding Goldberg to the group and claimed he did not possess the journalist’s contact information.

In a related judicial development, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, an Obama appointee, ordered the Trump administration to preserve all records associated with the Signal chat following a lawsuit over the incident.

The Pentagon’s internal investigation is expected to examine Hegseth’s adherence to classification standards and record-keeping regulations, with potential implications for the Trump administration’s use of third-party communication tools for high-level national security discussions.