April 3 (UPI) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other members of the Trump administration are being investigated for their recent use of a Signal app before a military strike on the Houthis in Yemen.
The March 15 chat held on the encrypted Signal app discussed a pending military strike and accidentally included The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Whicker, R-Miss., and ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I., on March 26 asked acting Department of Defense Inspector General Steven Stebbins to conduct an expedited investigation into DOD’s use of the Signal app in that instance and others, ABC News reported.
“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,” Stebbins said Thursday in a memo to Hegseth.
“Additionally, we will review compliance with classification and records retention requirements.”
Stebbins said the investigation’s objectives might change as the evaluation proceeds.
Hegseth has denied any operational plans were shared among senior members of the Trump administration during the group chat that included Vice President JD Vance, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, National Intelligence Director Tulsi Gabbard and others.
Goldberg on March 16 revealed someone included him in the group chat held over the encrypted app that discussed a pending military strike the day before.
The target became known after the U.S. military struck Houthis sites in Yemen on March 15.