The office of the Pentagon’s inspector general is reportedly looking into whether any of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s aides were asked to delete his infamous Signal messages about the then-impending U.S. military operations in Yemen.
The DOD IG announced on April 3 it would “conduct an inquiry” into Hegseth’s “use of an unclassified commercially available messaging application to discuss information pertaining to military actions in Yemen in March 2025.”
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Investigators are looking to determine whether anyone was asked to delete the Signal messages, whether anyone other than himself had access to his phone, and who posted the information in the chat, per the Associated Press.
Hegseth has strongly denied sharing classified information in the group chat, though most experts have said the details he shared — about the timing of pending strikes and the weapons that would be used in the operation — would be kept secretive due to the threats that could emerge to those involved in the mission if leaked ahead of time.
While there were more than a dozen Cabinet officials in the Signal chat, there was also Atlantic reporter Jeffrey Goldberg, who was accidentally and unknowingly added to it by President Donald Trump’s then-national security adviser Mike Waltz.
He also put the information about the strikes in a second group chat on Signal, which featured his wife, brother, and personal attorney, though none of them appeared to have any reason to be read in on an imminent military operation.
The new details about the DOD inspector general’s investigation come just days before the secretary is set to appear before Congress for the first time since his Senate confirmation. He will sit before the Senate and House Appropriations subcommittees on defense to discuss the department’s fiscal year 2026 budget, but there will undoubtedly be questions about his first couple of months on the job. Hegseth was representing the U.S. in Normandy, France, on Friday, to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the D-Day landings.
His confirmation hearing was contentious, with Democrats raising questions of his qualifications for the role and of his past history, which included infidelity, a disputed sexual assault claim he was never charged in connection with, and his drinking habits.
The top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee asked the inspector general to investigate Hegseth’s use of the Signal platform back in March. He has continued to dispute the characterizations of his use of the platform and maintains he did not share “war plans.”
HEGSETH SIGNAL GROUP CHAT (PART 2): WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
“I said repeatedly, nobody is texting war plans,” Hegseth said on Fox in April after reporting emerged about the chat that included his family members. “I look at war plans every day. What was shared over Signal then and now, however you characterize it, was informal, unclassified coordinations, for media coordinations and other things. That’s what I’ve said from the beginning.”
President Trump has said he continues to support Hegseth’s status as the secretary of defense.