Defense department-office-Inquiry -Pete Hegseth

The Defense Department Inspector General’s Office has opened an investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of the commercial messaging app Signal ahead of U.S. military airstrikes in Yemen.

The Pentagon’s top watchdog has begun an investigation into Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s use of Signal, a commercial messaging app, to plan military strikes on Yemen.

Acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins announced the inquiry Thursday in a letter sent to Hegseth’s office, asking for two points of contact within five days to help detail what information was shared and the decisions leading up to the communications.

Pentagon watchdog probing Hegseth’s Signal app us.The investigation — requested by Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I., — would be the first internal Pentagon review of Hegseth’s role in the group chat, made public last week.

In mid-March, top officials across the Trump administration used the app to plan attacks on Yemen’s Houthi rebels, an Iran-backed terrorist group that has targeted commercial ships transiting the Red Sea, an important route for global trade. The group mistakenly included a reporter from The Atlantic, who later published its contents after the administration argued they weren’t classified.