Pete Hegseth is Getting Investigated for Signalgate

On Thursday, the Pentagon’s independent watchdog launched a probe into the officials in Donald Trump’s administration who used the non-government approved messaging app, Signal, to discuss details of and plan a military strike.

Signalgate has dogged Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth since news broke on March 24 that he had mistakenly added The Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg to a group chat discussing an attack on Houthi terrorists in Yemen.

The story has riled up both the left and the right, and the rhetoric that those involved should be fired hasn't gone away. The acting Deputy Inspector General Steven Stebbins wrote in a memo his team will determine whether Hegseth “complied with DoD policies and procedures” or not.

The probe will determine whether or not Hegseth followed Department of Defense protocols. The probe will also examine whether Hegseth—and others in the Department of Defense—complied with classification and records retention requirements. This seems unlikely as Signal messages are mde to be automatically deleted after a certain time period.

Deputy Inspector General Steven Stebbins took over as acting inspector general after Trump fired his predecessor, Robert Storch. The official said in his memo that Hegseth will likely have to comply with the investigation - which could include handing over phones, computers, and other devices.

The White House, however, has declared that it considers the scandal to be “case closed”. Both Hegseth and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz have faced calls from Democrats to resign or be forced out of their positions.

It is unclear what sort of consequences, if any, Hegseth might face if he is found to have broken department procedures.

This is especially worrisome as Republicans have tried to downplay the issue, alleging Goldberg exaggerated and that none of the texts sent, even those with intricate details about a U.S. military strike’s target and timing, included classified information. If that's not classified information, then I don't know what is.