President Trump said he believes Secretary of War Pete Hegseth when he says he didn’t order military forces to leave no survivors in a strike on a boat from Venezuela that was thought to be involved in drug trafficking.
“He said he did not say that, and I believe him 100%,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, again reaffirming his support for Hegseth while downplaying Democratic talking points that Hegseth should resign.
A senior adviser to Hegseth says the forthcoming Pentagon inspector general report on the so-called “Signalgate” matter does not conclude that Hegseth shared classified information while texting about planned strikes against Houthi targets – and instead is expected to fault improper cellphone practices by former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Pentagon Report Expected to Exonerate Hegseth
Navy Reserve Commander Tim Parlatore, an attorney and adviser to Hegseth, told Just the News, No Noise on Wednesday that the report by Pentagon inspector general Steven Stebbins – which has been sent to Congress and is expected to be released publicly on Thursday – “totally exonerates” Hegseth.
Parlatore also said the report details broader reliance on the Signal messaging app among national security officials during the Biden administration, the outlet reported.
“You’re going to see that it totally exonerates Pete Hegseth,” Parlatore said. “There is no classified material in those texts. Everything he declassified – that he has within his authority to declassify.”
Classified Information Not Shared, Adviser Says
“Classified information – did he violate that, did he put out classified information? And the answer is no. Totally exonerated,” he added.
“There is a tiny little section in there that is really untethered from the rest of the report where the investigator states their opinion that having this information out there on an unclassified could have endangered the troops,” Parlatore also said. “But the problem is it is completely untethered from the rest of the report. It doesn’t cite to a single source, not to a single document, not to a single interview, because it is not something that the IG was investigating.”
Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic and a frequent critic of President Trump, published a story in March titled, “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans.” According to the article, Goldberg was mistakenly added to a Signal group chat by a user identified as “Mike Waltz,” who was serving as national security adviser at the time. T he chat included War Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent, and other national security officials, Just the News added.