Pentagon Investigates Hegseth’s Role in Chat Group Affair
The Pentagon’s inspector general, Steven Stebbins, announced on Thursday an internal investigation into the role of Defense Secretary Mark Hegseth in the so-called chat group affair. Hegseth and other government officials had discussed a potential military strike against the Huthi in Yemen on the Signal messaging app, while a journalist was accidentally added to the group.
“The goal of this assessment is to determine whether the Defense Secretary and other Pentagon officials have complied with DoD guidelines and procedures for using a commercial messaging app for official purposes” said Inspector General Steven Stebbins in a notification letter to Hegseth.
In late March, the US magazine The Atlantic published the contents of the chat, showing that Hegseth had mentioned the timeline, sequence of bombings and weapon systems used about half an hour before the start of a military operation. The Atlantic reported that Hegseth had said, among other things, “Targeted terrorist is at a known location.”
The Pentagon referred all questions to the office of the inspector general and cited the ongoing investigation. President Donald Trump expressed frustration when asked about the investigation, saying, “They’re bringing it up again. Mention it no more. Your editors probably – it’s just a wasted story.”
The Washington Post reported that, according to government sources, the director of the US National Security Agency (NSA), Timothy Haugh and his deputy, Wendy Noble, had resigned, in addition to the temporary director of the Cyber Command, William Hartmann, being appointed as the new NSA director, with Sheila Thomas as his deputy. The NSA is part of the Defense Ministry. The Pentagon and the White House did not initially respond to inquiries.