Senate committee presses Pentagon watchdog for answers on Signal chat
Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and ranking member Jack Reed (D-R.I.) have sent a letter to the Defense Department’s acting inspector general demanding more information about a Signal chat on which senior Trump officials apparently discussed military attack plans.
Wicker and Reed noted that the chat on Signal, a commercially available communications app, “was alleged to have included classified information pertaining to sensitive military actions in Yemen.”
“If true, this reporting raises questions as to the use of unclassified networks to discuss sensitive and classified information, as well as the sharing of such information with those who do not have proper clearance and need to know.”
The letter was addressed to Steven Stebbins, the Defense Department’s acting inspector general.
The Trump administration fired more than a dozen independent inspectors general, including the Defense Department’s watchdog, a few days after Trump took the oath of office in January.
Wicker told reporters Wednesday that his panel would seek an “expedited” investigation from the Pentagon’s inspector general (IG).
He and Reed have asked the Defense Department’s watchdog to “conduct an inquiry into, and provide us with an assessment” of the facts and circumstances surrounding the Signal chat, including what was communicated and what “remedial actions were taken” after it became revealed publicly.
The senators also want the watchdog to review and explain the department’s policies related to government officers and employees sharing sensitive and classified information on nongovernment networks and an assessment of its classification and declassification policies and whether senior officials followed those policies.
Perhaps most importantly, they are demanding an assessment of whether senior administration officials transferred classified information, including operational details, from a classified system to an unclassified system and, if so, how.
Finally, they are requesting an assessment of how the security policies of the White House, Defense Department and other agencies involved in the call may differ on classification and security procedures.
“The Senate Armed Services Committee will work with you to schedule a briefing immediately upon the completion of your review,” they wrote.