Hegseth shared Yemen strike plans on Signal, risking troops' safety

On Mar. 11, 2025, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz created a Signal group chat labeled 'Houthi PC small group' that included Vice President JVJD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary PHPete Hegseth, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller. Waltz accidentally added JGJeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, when he attempted to add White House spokesman Brian Hughes—his phone's contact list mixed up two people with similar initials, and Signal identified the wrong number as 'JG.' Goldberg remained in the chat from Mar. 13 to Mar. 24, reading real-time discussions about military operations before publicly disclosing the messages.

On Mar. 15, 2025, at 1:07 p.m. ET, Defense Secretary Hegseth sent detailed strike plans over Signal from his personal phone, writing messages like '1215 ET: F-18s LAUNCH' and describing the weapons sequence: F/A-18 Super Hornets from the USS Harry S. Truman would strike first, followed by drones, then Tomahawk cruise missiles from Navy warships. He transmitted this operational timeline two to four hours before the actual Mar. 15 strikes began as part of Operation Rough Rider, the Trump administration's 52-day bombing campaign against Houthi targets in Yemen that ultimately involved over 1,000 airstrikes and more than one million pounds of ordnance dropped between Mar. 15 and May 5, 2025.

The Pentagon Inspector General concluded on Dec. 3, 2025, that some information Hegseth sent from his personal phone on Signal matched operational details that U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) had classified as SECRET//NOFORN—a designation meaning unauthorized disclosure could reasonably cause 'serious damage' to national security and the material cannot be shared with foreign nationals. The IG report stated that Hegseth's transmission of this nonpublic operational information 'exposed sensitive DoD information, creating a risk to operational security that could have resulted in failed U.S. mission objectives and potential harm to U.S. pilots.' If intercepted by adversaries, the specific launch times, aircraft types, and weapons sequencing could have enabled the Houthis or their Iranian backers to reposition air defenses, ambush aircraft, or evacuate targeted facilities.

Hegseth violated at least two Pentagon policies: DoD Instruction 5015.02 prohibits conducting official business on personal devices and requires all federal records to be preserved under the Federal Records Act, and department regulations ban using non-approved commercial messaging apps to send nonpublic DoD information. Despite these violations, Hegseth texted the group 'I will do all we can to enforce 100% OPSEC' and later claimed 'We are currently clean on OPSEC'—operational security protocols designed to prevent adversaries from learning mission details. The IG found no evidence Hegseth preserved the Signal messages as official records, and he declined to sit for an in-person interview with investigators.

The Pentagon did not conduct a routine damage assessment—a forward-looking analysis that examines whether sources, methods, or ongoing operations were compromised and what mitigation is required—despite the IG's findings that classified information was shared with an unauthorized journalist and transmitted over an unsecured commercial app. Damage assessments are standard practice after unauthorized disclosures, even without proof of interception, because they evaluate risk rather than personal culpability. Hegseth never authorized the assessment, and Pentagon officials publicly characterized the IG report as a 'total exoneration,' a claim the Inspector General did not support. Hegseth himself tweeted, 'No classified information. Total exoneration. Case closed,' directly contradicting the IG's conclusion that SECRET//NOFORN material was involved.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe mentioned the name of an active undercover CIA officer in the Signal chat, a potential felony violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act that can carry a 10-year prison sentence. This occurred in the same conversation where DNI Tulsi Gabbard had stated on Mar. 14, 'Any unauthorized release of classified information is a violation of the law and will be treated as such,' and Ratcliffe himself said in 2019 that 'Mishandling classified information is still a violation of the Espionage Act.' Despite these prior statements, no criminal referrals or prosecutions resulted from the incident, and Gabbard later dismissed the accidental addition of Goldberg as simply a 'mistake.'

On Mar. 28, 2025, U.S. District JJJudge James Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to preserve all Signal messages related to the Yemen strikes after the watchdog group American Oversight filed a lawsuit under the Federal Records Act and Freedom of Information Act. The judge's preservation order came amid concerns that officials might delete the messages—Signal offers disappearing messages and end-to-end encryption that leaves no server-side copies. The IG recommended better training on secure communications and clearer guidance for senior officials, but stopped short of recommending disciplinary action. Congressional Democrats, including House Judiciary Ranking Member JRJamie Raskin, demanded further investigation into what he called 'stunningly reckless and likely illegal practices by top Trump Cabinet officials that put service members at risk,' but no further accountability measures were implemented as of Dec. 2025.