Hegseth Must Resign in Wake of Pentagon IG Report Finding His Signal Use Put Troops in Danger
Hegseth has betrayed the public’s trust, and he must resign immediately so the Defense Department can begin restoring integrity, accountability, and proper support for our troops.
Thursday, American Oversight released the following statement upon the release of a Department of Defense (DOD) Office of Inspector General (OIG) report, which found Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s sharing of classified Yemen strike details over Signal this spring — in group chats that also included his spouse, brother, and a reporter — violated department regulations and put troops in danger.
Chioma Chukwu, Executive Director of American Oversight: “The Defense Department’s inspector general report makes unmistakably clear that Secretary Hegseth’s reckless use of a private, auto-deleting messaging app for classified military discussions was a dangerous breach that threatened the lives of our U.S. service members and put our national security at risk. By sharing sensitive strike details in chats that included his family and a reporter, Hegseth violated basic security protocols and exemplified the very culture of evasion we warned about when we first went to court over Signalgate in March. Hegseth also tried to avoid accountability by refusing to be interviewed by the OIG while simultaneously attempting to weaken its authority and independence. This conduct must not be tolerated from the person charged with safeguarding our armed forces. Secretary Hegseth has betrayed the public’s trust, and he must resign immediately so the Defense Department can begin restoring integrity, accountability, and proper support for our troops.”
We were the first organization to file a lawsuit in the Signalgate matter after The Atlantic revealed that Hegseth and other senior administration officials had used Signal to discuss sensitive military operations. Since then, our litigation has prompted a court order to preserve records, spurred the inspector general investigation, and exposed a broader pattern of recordkeeping violations across multiple agencies.