Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth labeled a Pentagon inspector general's probe into the use of the Signal app to share military plans "a sham, conducted in bad faith and with extreme bias," according to a department spokesman.
In a New York Times story on Tuesday, Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell was quoted describing the IG's investigation as "a political witch hunt by Biden administration holdovers."
Parnell added that Hegseth provided the IG with a statement "which points out why this entire exercise is a sham, conducted in bad faith and with extreme bias."
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and ranking member Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., sent a March 26 letter to the acting Defense Department IG Steven Stebbins regarding their bipartisan concern and interest about the Signal group chat involving senior members of the Trump administration, the committee announced in a press release.
President Barack Obama appointed Stebbins to the Senior Executive Service and he joined the Defense Department as chief of staff of the Office of Inspector General in 2015, according to a bio on The Presidential Prayer Team website. He was appointed principal deputy IG in 2023.
The Washington Post reported that Reed criticized Hegseth's team for the allegation that the probe was a "witch hunt."
"The civilian leadership of the Department of Defense is not above the law," Reed said in a statement, the Post reported. "To suggest that the nonpartisan Inspector General is doing anything other than their impartial duties is simply wrong. Taxpayers and military personnel deserve to know the truth, and the Inspector General's office has a responsibility to follow all evidence and report its independent findings."
The Post last week reported the IG's team had evidence indicating messages disseminated through Hegseth's account on the unclassified chat app originated from a classified email sent to senior Defense Department officials by the top officer overseeing U.S. operations in the Middle East, Gen. Michael "Erik" Kurilla.
Hegseth in late April said "informal, unclassified coordinations" were shared in an online chat and he added that an internal probe into leakers at the Pentagon continued.
The New York Times had reported two days earlier that Hegseth shared detailed information about forthcoming strikes in Yemen on March 15 in a private Signal group chat that included his wife, brother, and personal lawyer.
The Times report followed news weeks earlier that The Atlantic's editor-in-chief was accidentally included in a March 13 group chat with top Trump administration officials, including Hegseth and then-White House national security adviser Mike Waltz, who were discussing plans for military action in Yemen.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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