Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth’s workplace has rejected the Pentagon watchdog’s investigation of his actions in sending delicate assault plans over the Sign messaging app in March, calling the impartial inquiry “a political witch hunt.”
In an announcement to The Hill on Wednesday, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell claims with out proof that particulars of the Protection Division Inspector Common’s (DOD IG) inquiry — began in April after Republican and Democratic members of the Senate Armed Companies Committee requested it achieve this — had been leaked to the media by “Biden administration holdovers.”
“This Inspector General evaluation is clearly a political witch hunt by Biden administration holdovers as evidenced by [the] fact that they’ve already started leaking to the failing New York Times,” Parnell states.
He additionally reveals for the primary time publicly that Hegseth has offered an announcement to the DOD IG “which points out why this entire exercise is a sham, conducted in bad faith and with extreme bias.”
The response comes after The Washington Submit final week reported that the Pentagon watchdog was advised the messages Hegseth despatched to no less than two unsecure Sign chats relating to the U.S. plans to bomb Houthi targets in Yemen got here from an e mail labeled “SECRET/NOFORN.”
The assault plans had initially been shared with greater than a dozen Protection officers by way of a categorised e mail despatched over a categorised system by U.S. Central Command head Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, in line with the Submit.
Hegseth has come beneath intense scrutiny for posting the small print of the plans within the unclassified Sign group chat instantly earlier than Washington launched its assaults on March 15. He additionally shared the knowledge in a separate chat that included his spouse, brother and private legal professional.
Invoking the phrases “witch hunt” takes a web page out of President Trump’s playbook relating to hitting again at public scrutiny, usually seen as a way to delegitimize findings that contradict his administration’s viewpoint.
However the IG overview started after Senate Armed Companies Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), and rating member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) requested the inquiry, making it troublesome for the Trump administration to dismiss it as a Democrat-led assault.
The watchdog report, anticipated within the subsequent a number of weeks, is anticipated to seek out whether or not Hegseth and his staff accurately adopted Pentagon coverage in utilizing business messaging functions for official enterprise.
The Trump administration, in the meantime, has repeatedly and adamantly claimed that no categorised data was shared within the Sign group chats, which had been revealed as a result of the editor in chief of The Atlantic was inadvertently added to 1.
DOD IG spokesperson Mollie Halpern declined to remark to The Hill on the overview, citing its long-standing coverage that bars the watchdog from doing so whereas a case stays open.
