The new DoD OIG report (DODIG-2026-021) confirms something we’ve never seen before in the United States:
A sitting Secretary of Defense shared real-time strike timelines — F-18 launch times, drone windows, Tomahawk schedules, even OPSEC status — over Signal on his personal phone, 2–4 hours before the attacks, to a chat that included an uncleared journalist.
He did this after receiving those details in a SECRET//NOFORN briefing email.
And because the chat used auto-delete, most of the SecDef’s strike-day messages are now gone, violating the Federal Records Act.
The IG says this created a real operational risks. Adversaries could’ve adjusted positions or countered U.S. aircraft in real time.
No prior case — Clinton emails, Trump WH messaging apps, Petraeus, Manning, Snowden — involved a Cabinet official broadcasting live war plans on a prohibited messaging platform during an active operation.
This is not a normal classification issue.
It’s the first documented instance of a U.S. Secretary of Defense exposing active, time-sensitive military strike details to uncleared recipients over a banned, auto-deleting app, and then failing to retain the record.
A true first in American history.