The Pentagon’s acting inspector general has announced an investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the Signal messaging app to discuss plans for a military strike against Houthi militants in Yemen.
The investigation will also examine the broader use of the commercially available encrypted app by other Defense Department officials. Signal is a publicly accessible app that, while offering encryption, is not designed to handle classified information and is not part of the Defense Department’s secure communications network.
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The issue of Hegseth’s Signal use came to public attention after a journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, was included in a Signal text chain by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. This chat group involved Hegseth, Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and others, and was used to discuss military operations targeting the Iran-backed Houthis.
A memorandum from the acting inspector general to the Secretary of Defense and Deputy Secretary of Defense stated that the evaluation was initiated in response to a March 26, 2025, letter from the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, as well as similar requests from other members of Congress.
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The stated objective of the evaluation is to determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other DoD personnel complied with DoD policies and procedures regarding the use of commercial messaging applications for official business. The investigation will also review compliance with classification and records retention requirements.
The Inspector General’s office plans to conduct the evaluation in Washington, D.C., and at the U.S. Central Command Headquarters in Tampa, Florida, with the possibility of adding other locations as the investigation progresses.
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