Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth could have endangered troops when he sent messages detailing attack times on a Signal chat, a Pentagon watchdog found.

"The Inspector General review is a TOTAL exoneration of Secretary Hegseth," a Pentagon spokesperson told Newsweek.

The Defense Secretary faced scrutiny on two fronts Thursday: over a strike that killed survivors on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean and his use of Signal to discuss U.S. attack plans on Yemen.

Secrecy experts weigh in on the Pentagon's claim that IG report exonerated Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in the Signal chat controversy.

Senator Mark Kelly, an Arizona Democrat who sits on the Armed Services Committee, said that the report found Hegseth was in violation of Pentagon regulations. “They very clearly stated he should not be using his cellphone and putting this kind of information on an unclassified system,” he told reporters on Capitol Hill.

A forthcoming inspector general report finds that had intel shared by Hegseth been intercepted by an adversary, it would have endangered servicemembers, according to a source who viewed the findings.

The report comes as the defense secretary is engulfed in a controversy over a “double tap” strike on an alleged drug smuggling boat.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing scrutiny after a new watchdog report found his use of the Signal app earlier this year could have harmed troops. The findings come as military officials briefed lawmakers about the U.

The inspector general concluded that the defense secretary violated the Pentagon’s instructions on using a private electronic device to share sensitive information.

T he U.S. military continued its assault on what it claims are drug-running boats off the coastal waters of Latin America with another strike Thursday that the Pentagon said killed four people. The strike in the Eastern Pacific was ordered by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth,