War Secretary Pete Hegseth has just been handed a clean slate by the Pentagon’s inspector general in the so-called “Signalgate” drama.
Just The News reported that in an upcoming report, expected to hit the public eye on a Thursday after being delivered to Congress, it absolves Hegseth of allegations that he leaked classified intel through the Signal app while discussing U.S. military strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen.
The story kicked off in March when Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic dropped a bombshell piece claiming Hegseth and other high-ranking officials, including Vice President JD Vance and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, were tossing around war plans in a Signal group chat.
Those plans allegedly involved strikes on over 800 Iranian-backed Houthi locations under Operation Rough Rider.
Senators Roger Wicker and Jack Reed didn’t waste time, penning a letter to the Pentagon IG in late March demanding a deep dive into whether sensitive military details were being slung around on unclassified networks.
By early April, the Pentagon IG, under Steven Stebbins, launched an official investigation, while media like The New York Times piled on with reports alleging Hegseth shared detailed plans in private chats with family and advisors.
Hegseth, however, pushed back hard, denying that any classified info was shared and calling out Goldberg’s reporting as a parade of falsehoods.
Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell echoed that stance on social media, insisting the narrative was pure fiction.
Now, the IG report has landed, and according to Navy Reserve Commander Tim Parlatore, an adviser to Hegseth, it’s a full exoneration, finding no evidence of classified material in those Signal messages.
Parlatore didn’t hold back, stating, “You’re going to see that it totally exonerates Pete Hegseth. There is no classified material in those texts."
He further clarified that Hegseth, as the original classifying authority, had the power to declassify information at his discretion, often for coordination with partner forces before details went public in media interviews.
Here’s where it gets spicy—the report doesn’t just focus on Hegseth but points out that Signal use for sensitive communications has been a government-wide habit since 2020, spanning multiple administrations.
Even more eyebrow-raising, it calls out former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for allegedly bringing his personal cell phone into a SCIF—a clear violation of protocol—while Hegseth insisted on a legal, secure workaround with his comms team.
Parlatore noted, “This report actually notes that the former secretary, Lloyd Austin, actually used to bring his personal cell phone into the office, into the SCIF, in violation of the law." Well, isn’t that a convenient double standard for the establishment crowd?
Not everyone’s buying the all-clear signal, with Senator Mark Kelly arguing that using an unofficial app for sensitive discussions could still jeopardize troop safety if adversaries snag the intel.
Meanwhile, media like NBC News tweeted claims of leaked classified info endangering troops, only to be swiftly rebuffed by Parnell as outright false based on the IG’s findings. When will the mainstream outlets learn to read the fine print before hitting “post”?
