Investigators looking at who sent HegSeth signal texts, if they have been invited to delete them, say sources

Pentagon investigators examine whether the Secretary of the Ministry of Defense, Pete Hegseth, personally wrote SMS detailing the military plans to hit Houthi targets in Yemen or if other staff members have caught these details, according to two familiar people with the current investigation.

The Inspector General’s Office of the Ministry of Defense spent several weeks interviewing current and former HegSeth’s current members to understand how the United States has put the details from a classified system found themselves in a trade messaging application known as the signal.

“Because this is one of the DOD IG projects, in accordance with our policy, we do not provide the scope or details to protect the integrity of the process and avoid compromising the evaluation,” said DOD IG spokesperson Mollie Halperin, ABC News.

The details were relayed in two discussion groups which included Hegseth – one with vice -president JD Vance and other senior officials, and a second which included the wife of Hegseth, who is not employed by the government.

It is not known how long the results will be published. Hegseth is expected to testify for the first time as a defense secretary on Tuesday, where Democratic legislators are expected to question his management of classified and sensitive information.

The sharing of details would have taken place at the same time at the same time in mid-March when the main members of the national national security council of President Donald Trump, including Hegseth, inadvertently shared details on the missile strike on March 15 in Yemen with the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic.

Much of the same content was shared in the second encrypted cat with family members and others – a discussion group that Hegseth had created on his personal phone during his confirmation process which included his wife, Jennifer Hegseth, said the two officials in ABC News.

In addition to determining whether the information has been classified and who wrote it, investigators also ask whether staff members have been invited by Hegseth or others to delete messages, according to a person familiar with the IG survey.

The government is required under the law to maintain federal communications as official files.