Pentagon Watchdog Opens Probe Into Use of Signal for Yemen Attack Plans

The Pentagon's Inspector General's office announced on Thursday it was opening a probe into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's use of an unclassified commercial texting application to coordinate on the highly sensitive March 15 launch of U.S. strikes on Yemen's Houthis.

In a memorandum addressed to Hegseth, the Inspector General's office said it would examine whether Hegseth's use of Signal met Defense Department guidelines and appeared set to look at whether the information provided was or should have been classified.

Hegseth has repeatedly said no classified information was revealed in the chat, even though it included precise times for the launch of U.S. airstrikes and some targeting details that are regarded as closely guarded secrets ahead of a surprise military operation like the one in Yemen.

The details of the chat were revealed last week by The Atlantic magazine, after its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was included in the chat by mistake.

"The objective of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other DoD personnel complied with DoD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business," wrote Steven Stebbins, the acting Inspector General.

"Additionally, we will review compliance with classification and records retention requirements."

Stebbins became the acting Inspector General in January after President Donald Trump fired the previous head of the Defense Department's independent watchdog and other agency watchdogs across the government during his first week in office.

Stebbins said the review will take place in Washington D.C. as well as at U.S. Central Command headquarters in Tampa, Florida.

"We request that you designate two points of contact for this evaluation within 5 days," he wrote in the memo, which was also addressed to Hegseth's deputy, Steve Feinberg.

The top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee had requested an investigation into the use of the messaging application last week.