Senior GOP and Dem senators ask Pentagon IG to investigate Signal group chat incident

The Republican and Democrat leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee have sent a letter to the Defense Department inspector general asking for an investigation in the Signal group chat controversy that has ensnared senior Trump administration officials, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The letter, sent by Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Ranking Member Jack Reed (D-RI), asks the IG investigate the incident detailed in a March 24 story in The Atlantic, which reports that editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was inadvertently added to a group chat on Signal in which senior Trump administration officials discuss the details of an imminent U.S. airstrike on Houthi militants in Yemen.

“This chat was alleged to have included classified information pertaining to sensitive military actions in Yemen,” the letter states. “If true, this reporting raises questions as to the use of unclassified networks to discuss sensitive and classified information, as well as the sharing of such information with those who do not have proper clearance and need to know.”

Hegseth, according to the Signal text chain released by The Atlantic, introduced information into the chat that included operations details related to the U.S. attack plan, including timing, weapons and sequencing information.

Hegseth, who is traveling to Asia this week, has said the information he included in the Signal group chat was not classified. Lawmakers and former defense and intelligence officials, however, dispute that and some have called for his resignation.

Wicker and Reed are asking the IG to provide “the facts and circumstances” surrounding the Signal chat incident as well as an “assessment of DOD classification and declassification policies and processes and whether these policies and processes were adhered to.”

The IG’s investigation, according to the letter, should also include an “assessment of whether any individuals transferred classified information, including operational details, from classified systems to unclassified systems, and if so, how.”