Pentagon watchdog to investigate Signal chat on Houthi attack

Tony Capaccio, Bloomberg News on Apr 3, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s inspector general will conduct an investigation of the Signal group chat where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other Trump administration officials discussed details of an impending attack on Houthi militants in Yemen.

“We are initiating the subject evaluation” in response to a request from lawmakers for “an inquiry into recent public reporting on the Secretary of Defense’s use of an unclassified commercially available messaging application to discuss information pertaining to military actions in Yemen in March 2025,” the inspector general’s office said in a statement Thursday.

Roger Wicker, the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Jack Reed, the panel’s top Democrat, asked the inspector general last week to look into the “facts and circumstances” around the episode, which came to light because a magazine editor was inadvertently included in the discussion, and to assess Defense Department classification policies.

“If true, this reporting raises questions as to the use of unclassified networks to discuss sensitive and classified information,” the senators said in a letter to Steven Stebbins, the acting Pentagon inspector general.

Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg published a story saying he had been inadvertently added to the group chat on pending strikes against the Houthis that included top U.S. officials including Vice President JD Vance and Hegseth.

The Atlantic later published the transcript of the chat, including a text in which Hegseth shared details of timing shortly before the attacks as well as which U.S. military assets would carry it out.

in normal circumstances, such a letter would trigger a probe almost immediately. But President Donald Trump fired Stebbins’ predecessor, Robert Storch, along with several other inspectors general after taking office in January, leaving questions about the office’s current status.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has indicated she won’t seek a probe of the Signal episode, saying it was simply a mistake.

“It was sensitive information, not classified, and inadvertently released,” Bondi said. “What we should be talking about is it was a very successful mission. Our world is now safer because of that mission. We’re not going to comment any further on that.”

_____