'Don't know who to trust': Ex-general warns US commanders wary of sharing info with boss

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is embroiled in another Signal scandal after it was discovered he shared sensitive military information to his wife and brother. Retired Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling said that this will likely give the nation's top commanders pause in the future when talking to Hegseth.

Speaking to MSNBC on Tuesday, Hertling, an Army veteran, said that he hasn't seen much from the National Security Council or the National Security Advisor regarding an investigation. He noted that in a regular administration, there would be a swift probe after such revelations.

"They say they're going to do an investigation, and that Mike Waltz, the national security adviser, was going to be the one who really focused on it. I haven't seen that yet," said Hertling. "And there continues to be ... continued refutes of whatever happened. And, 'No, we didn't do anything. We didn't have any classified information.'"

ALSO READ: Lock him up. Here's what the Espionage Act has to say about disappearing information

But according to Hertling, the information was "sensitive" and "affected targeting and a process by the U.S. military.

"And, you know, the news that came out this morning of it being transferred from what's called a supercomputer, more than likely a Secret Internet Protocol router. It's a type of computer that every single person who has any kind of access to classified information has on their desk, along with a regular computer that has unclassified stuff on it," Hertling said.

Those computers don't have any access panels for USB drives, so a user can't copy any information from the classified computer to another, he said. So, for an individual to copy that information means they had to put it on another device from that classified system.

"So, when you're transferring that kind of information, I can conceive of how it was done. Whoever transferred it, picked up their cell phone, went to the Signal app, looked at their screen on the SIPRNet, and then used just the voice data on the Signal app and basically said what was on that secure message, the secret classified message," Hertling said.

"But when it goes on the Signal app, just the transfer by voice or taking a photo and pasting it on the Signal app would really condemn whoever does it of passing classified information," he added.

However, what he's concerned about is that a top general may no longer trust Hegseth.

"I'd also suggest if General Erik Kurilla passed this to him on a SIPR computer, and then he put it on a Signal app, that I've got to tell you, if I'm General Kurilla in the field, I'm going to be very careful what I pass my boss because I don't trust him anymore to keep these kind of secrets until he shows that kind of trust," said Hertling referring to Commander of U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).

"They don't know who to trust anymore."

See the clip below or at the link here.

- YouTube youtu.be