Pentagon watchdog investigates if staffers were asked to delete Hegseth’s Signal messages

By TARA COPP Associated Press WASHINGTON AP The Pentagon watchdog is looking into whether any of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth s aides was demanded to delete Signal messages that may have shared sensitive military information with a reporter according to two people familiar with the inspection and documents reviewed by The Associated Press The inspector general s request focuses on how information about the March airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen was shared on the messaging app U S Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attends a ceremony at the US cemetery to commemorate the st anniversary of the D-Day landings Friday June in Colleville-sur-Mer Normandy AP Photo Thomas Padilla This comes as Hegseth is scheduled to testify before Congress next week for the first time since his confirmation hearing He is likely to face questions under oath not only about his handling of sensitive information but also the wider turmoil at the Pentagon following the departures of several senior aides and an internal analysis over information leaks Hegseth already has faced questions over the installation of an unsecured internet line in his office that bypassed the Pentagon s defense protocols and revelations that he shared details about the military strikes in multiple Signal chats One of the chats included his wife and brother while the other included President Donald Trump s top national precaution bureaucrats and inadvertently included The Atlantic s editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg Neither the Pentagon nor the inspector general s office promptly responded to Friday requests for comment on the research Besides finding out whether anyone was solicited to delete Signal messages the inspector general also is asking several past and current staffers who were with Hegseth on the day of the strikes who posted the information and who had access to his phone according to the two people familiar with the examination and the documents reviewed by the AP The people were not authorized to discuss the research and spoke on the condition of anonymity Democratic lawmakers and a small number of Republicans have stated that the information Hegseth posted to the Signal chats before the military jets had reached their targets could have put those pilots lives at peril and that for any lower-ranking members of the military it would have led to their firing Hegseth has commented none of the information was classified Multiple current and former military authorities have mentioned there is no way details with that specificity especially before a strike took place would have been OK to share on an unsecured device I mentioned repeatedly nobody is texting war plans Hegseth reported Fox News Channel 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 noted from the beginning Trump has made clear that Hegseth continues to have his endorsement saying during a Memorial Day speech at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia that the defense secretary went through a lot but he s doing really well Related Articles The Latest Trump-Musk relationship appears to implode Federal vs state power at issue in a hearing over Trump s ballot overhaul executive order Trump and Musk break up and Washington holds its breath The implosion of a powerful political alliance Trump and Musk in their own words Howie Carr Jailhouse letter speaks volumes on illegal immigration Hegseth has limited his community engagements with the press since the Signal disagreement He has yet to hold a Pentagon press briefing and his spokesman has briefed reporters there only once The inspector general is examining Hegseth at the request of the Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Sen Roger Wicker of Mississippi and the committee s top Democrat Sen Jack Reed of Rhode Island Signal is a publicly available app that provides encrypted communications but it can be hacked and is not approved for carrying classified information On March one day before the strikes against the Houthis the Defense Department cautioned personnel about the vulnerability of the app Trump has mentioned his administration targeted the Houthis over their unrelenting campaign of piracy violence and terrorism He has noted the disruption Houthi attacks caused through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden key waterways for potential and cargo shipments between Asia and Europe through Egypt s Suez Canal The Houthi rebels attacked more than merchant vessels with missiles and drones sinking two vessels and killing four sailors between November until January this year Their leadership described the attacks as aimed at ending the Israeli war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip