WASHINGTON – The Department of Defense Inspector’s Office announced Thursday it has launched an investigation into the highly criticized use of Chief Pete Hegses’ signal messaging app to communicate about plans to bomb Yemen.

The review comes from letters sent last week from Rhode Island Republican Roger Wicker, Mississippi Republican Roger Wicker, chairman and ranking members. Ask Watchdog Agency Investigate the problem.

General Stephen A. Stebbins, Department of Defense inspector I wrote it on a note The General Inspectors Act of 1978 “recognizes it necessary for timely monitoring, and therefore allows us to have access to personnel and materials.”

The objective of the assessment is to “determine the degree to which the Secretary of Defense and other DOD officials have complied with DOD policies and procedures for using commercial messaging applications for official business. Additionally, we will verify compliance with classification and record-keeping requirements.”

The investigation will be conducted by US Central Commanders in Washington, DC and Tampa, Florida.

Concerns about the use of signals, a commercially available, encrypted messaging app, began after the Atlantic Ocean Article has been published Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg details how it was incorrectly added to the group chats that exchange messages about national security plans. The controversy that followed is called “SignalGate.”

Vice President JD Vance, Hegses, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tarsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz were all in the group.

They were discussing US military plans to bomb the Hooti rebels in Yemen. This raises great concern about how senior Trump administration officials are communicating and processing classified information.

Last updated at 1:55pm, April 3, 2025