Pete Hegseth Confirmed to Have Sent Classified Material in Signal Chat
Pete Hegseth shared classified intel in Signal chat about Houthi strikes, Washington Post confirms.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth sent classified information over Signal. A long-suspected security failure was confirmed by the Washington Post on Wednesday, demonstrating that the nation's secrets are nowhere near as secure as the administration claims.
Not So Secure
In an exclusive report, The Washington Post revealed that a watchdog within the Pentagon confirmed that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth sent classified material via his Signal chat.
As the Post explains:
"The Pentagon’s independent watchdog has received evidence that messages from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Signal account previewing a U.S. bombing campaign in Yemen were derived from a classified email labeled 'SECRET/NOFORN,' people familiar with the matter said.
The revelation appears to contradict long-standing claims by the Trump administration that no classified information was divulged in unclassified group chats that critics have called a significant security breach."
The Post goes on to explain that "SECRET/NOFORN" means that the information shared was considered a level two classification in terms of its secrecy and was prohibited from being shared with any foreigners, including allies. Indeed, the material was shared from an email from Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, who is the top officer responsible for overseeing U.S. military operations in the Middle East. The Post further explains that General Kurilla sent the email through "the Secret Internet Protocol Router Network, or SIPRNet," but that details from said email were sent in the Signal chat by Secretary Hegseth.
Classified information falls into three levels: Top Secret, Secret, and Confidential. Hegseth's message met the second level, secret, meaning its exposure could seriously harm national security and must not be shared with any foreign nationals. Simply put, Hegseth violated this principle.
The Signal Chat's Contents
To understand the threat posed by Hegseth's actions, it is essential to consider how we got to this point. On March 24, 2025, The Atlantic's Editor-in-Chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, revealed the existence of the Signal chat. Goldberg was added to the chat by then-National Security Advisor Michael Walz by mistake and would lead the charge on the story’s early development. The chat included detailed plans for when strikes on the Houthis, a Yemeni terrorist organization, would take place, weapons that were being used, and operational details that Goldberg was not willing to publish in his initial piece announcing the chat's existence.
After Republicans, including some individuals in the chat, accused Goldberg and The Atlantic of lying about the contents of the chat, The Atlantic published more details, confirming they were authentic. Since then, Republicans have repeatedly attempted to argue that no classified material was shared in the chat.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee in March that no classified material was shared in the chat. Those claims were met with skepticism at the time, and now, it’s painfully clear they weren’t true.
The Lies Fall Flat
While Republicans have attempted to downplay the significance of these events, their line of argumentation has fallen apart, and it is increasingly clear that the administration was being incredibly reckless with the nation's security. They could have used sensitive compartmented information facilities, or SCIFs, for short, to share this information, but instead chose to use an unapproved commercial app and share critical national intelligence in a group chat.
It’s bad enough they added a journalist to a sensitive military group chat, but it’s even more galling that they accused critics of overreacting. It shouldn't matter what party a government official or administration belongs to. If the security of the United States is at stake, everyone should be concerned. However, considering how poorly the current President handled U.S. secrets at Mar-A-Lago, I am not surprised at this arrogant and corrupt display.
References
Bade, Rachel. 2025. “‘An Amateur Person’: GOP Rep. Bacon Says Hegseth Should Go.” POLITICO. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/21/don-bacon-recommends-firing-hegseth-00301057 (July 24, 2025).
Dorn, Andrew. 2022. “Understanding the 3 Levels of Classified Information.” NewsNation. https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/the-three-levels-of-classified-information-for-documents/ (July 24, 2025).
Goldberg, Jeffrey. 2025. “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans.” The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/trump-administration-accidentally-texted-me-its-war-plans/682151/ (July 24, 2025).
Goldberg, Jeffrey, and Shane Harris. 2025. “Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisers Shared on Signal.” The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2025/03/signal-group-chat-attack-plans-hegseth-goldberg/682176/ (July 24, 2025).
Horton, Alex, et al. 2025. “Warning Iran, Trump Orders Large-Scale Strikes against Yemen’s Houthis.” The Washington Post, March 15. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/03/15/trump-yemen-houthis-iran/ (July 24, 2025).
Kelly, Conor. 2023. “It Got Worse: Trump Searched For Nuclear Records.” The Progressive American Report. https://www.progressiveamerican.net/p/it-got-worse-trump-searched-for-nuclear (July 24, 2025).
Lamothe, Dan, and John Hudson. 2025. “Hegseth Signal Messages Came from Email Classified ‘SECRET,’ Watchdog Told.” The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/07/23/hegseth-signalgate-classified-secret/ (July 24, 2025).
Ryan, Missy, and Dan Lamothe. 2025. “Hegseth Faces Renewed Scrutiny after Signal Chat Disclosures.” The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/03/25/pete-hegseth-war-plans-signal-chat-leak/ (July 24, 2025).
Zengerle, Patricia, and Doina Chiacu. 2025. “Trump Team Scrambles to Handle Fallout from Signal Chat Assailed as ‘Sloppy, Careless.’” Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/us-democrats-grill-trump-team-over-yemen-war-security-breach-2025-03-25/ (July 24, 2025).
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