The US Secretary of War was convicted in the Signalgate scandal

According to RCO News Agency, two informed sources announced Wednesday that a Pentagon investigation found US Secretary of War Pete Hegst guilty of using the Signal messenger on his personal device to send sensitive information about planned attacks in Yemen, because if intercepted, it could have endangered American forces.

However, the Pentagon’s independent inspector general’s report did not comment on whether information released by Hoggst was classified, the sources said, acknowledging that “as the head of the Pentagon, he has the authority to determine the classification of information.”

The report has not yet been released, but US officials expect it to be made public this week. However, the Pentagon claimed in a statement that the investigation exonerated Hegst. “This matter has been resolved and the case is closed,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said.

Raise legal concerns

The renewed focus on Hegset comes at a critical time; As investigations into his role in directing deadly US raids on suspected drug-trafficking vessels in the Caribbean have intensified and raised legal concerns.

Hogst shared the details of the imminent March 15 US attacks on the Yemeni armed forces with a group of senior national security officials of the Trump administration; A group that coincidentally included Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic.

Goldberg later published details of the chat in an op-ed, and when Trump administration officials accused him of exaggerating the importance of the information, he released screenshots of conversations between Heggst and other senior Trump officials. In these images, Hegst was seen two hours before the secret military operation sending messages about specific plans to kill one of the leaders of Yemen’s Ansarullah.

According to the sources, the report of the inspector general of the Pentagon announced that the information sent by the US military was classified at the time of transfer to Hegset, and if the chat was intercepted, it could have endangered the lives of the American troops and the mission itself.

Hegset’s non-cooperation with the Inspector General

According to the report, Hoggst has repeatedly denied that he texted the war plans and said he did not share any classified information. He also declined to be interviewed by the inspector general’s office for the investigation.

In a written statement to the inspector general, Hogst told the inspector general that he had the authority to declassify information and only communicated information that he did not believe posed an operational risk, according to one of the sources. He also called the investigation politicized, even though both Republican and Democratic lawmakers had called for it.

Hoggst’s previous defenses about the use of the signal messenger have confused Democrats and former US officials, who consider timing and targeting information among the most confidential data before any military operation. According to Reuters, if Ansarullah leaders knew the attack was coming, the operation might have been canceled.

However, the chat did not include the names or precise coordinates of the Yemeni targets and did not provide information that could be used to launch an attack against US forces. The Pentagon’s inspector general noted that Hoggst provided only a limited number of his signal messages, and the investigation had to rely on screenshots published by The Atlantic.

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