Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the inspector general investigators looking into his alleged use of Signal to share classified strike plans that he determined the details he shared either weren’t classified to begin with or were “safe to declassify,” according to a written statement included in a report released Thursday by the Defense Department’s independent oversight office.

Though Hegseth had the authority to make that decision, the IG found he was still in violation of department policy for transmitting information that could have put service members in danger—in this case, the Navy pilots who were flying the March 15 mission to bomb Houthi targets in Yemen—by taking sensitive details about time, place and manner and sharing them on an unapproved messaging platform via hi

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