Pete Hegseth, who is now serving as the Defense Secretary, is under more pressure as the Pentagon’s acting inspector general has decided to dig deeper into how he used the encrypted messaging app Signal. This app is often used for private, secure conversations, but now there are concerns that it may have been used inappropriately for official government communication.
At first, the investigation was only focused on one group chat that Hegseth was part of, along with other high-ranking officials. That chat came to light in an unusual way—when Mike Waltz, the former National Security Adviser, accidentally added Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of *The Atlantic*, to the group. This mistake revealed that such a chat existed and raised concerns about whether any sensitive or classified government information had been shared there.
Now, the inspector general, Steven Stebbins, has decided to widen the investigation. It turns out there was another Signal group chat that Hegseth was also part of. This second group included people from his personal life, like his wife, his brother, and his personal lawyer. This new detail is even more troubling because it increases the chances that private individuals may have had access to government information, which would be a serious breach of national security rules.
The big concern now is whether any highly classified or sensitive information was taken from secure government systems and copied or shared through Signal, which is a commercial app not designed for top-secret communications. Stebbins is specifically looking into how that information, if any, may have ended up on Signal and who was responsible for moving it there.
Hegseth has strongly denied ever using Signal to send classified information. But investigators are not just taking his word for it—they are going through records and looking for evidence to find out what really happened. If they find proof that classified government information was shared in these private chats, it could lead to serious legal consequences for Hegseth and possibly others involved.
This situation is very serious because in the U.S. government, there are strict rules about how secret and sensitive information must be handled. It’s only supposed to be shared on secure systems, and even small mistakes can lead to big consequences. Using a personal app like Signal to discuss government matters—especially with people who don’t work for the government—could be a major violation of those rules.
This investigation is still ongoing, and more details will likely come out in the future. But for now, the expansion of the inquiry suggests that investigators believe there may be more to uncover, and that Pete Hegseth could be in real trouble if the evidence doesn’t match his denials.
