Pentagon IG confirms Hegseth shared SECRET/NOFORN airstrike details on Signal — with his wife and brother, neither of whom held clearance

Hegseth's Signalgate Wasn't a Mistake About the App. The IG Says the Source Was Labeled SECRET/NOFORN.

When Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared airstrike details in a Signal group chat — the first time with Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg, the second time with a different group — the White House called it a procedural lapse. The Pentagon Inspector General's report calls it something more specific.

What NOFORN Means

SECRET/NOFORN is a classification marking that means the information cannot be shared with foreign nationals. It also implies the material is sensitive enough that even U.S. citizens without the appropriate clearances cannot access it. The IG confirmed that the email Hegseth used as the source of his Signal messages carried that marking.

The Recipients

Hegseth forwarded or relayed the substance of that classified email to two people via Signal: his wife, Jennifer Hegseth, and his brother Phil Hegseth. Neither held security clearances at the level required for SECRET/NOFORN material. Both received the airstrike operational details anyway.

The Pentagon's Own Watchdog

The Inspector General is not a partisan actor. It is the Defense Department's internal accountability office. When the IG puts into writing that a Secretary of Defense sourced a classified Signal message from a SECRET/NOFORN email and sent it to uncleared family members, that is not an allegation. That is an official finding.