Hegseth team lashes out at Pentagon's internal 'Signalgate' review

[Zorro]

The attack on the Defense Department inspector general appears designed to undermine the inquiry’s legitimacy — even before its findings are made public.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s team on Tuesday denounced the Pentagon’s internal review of his actions in the “Signalgate” affair, calling the independent inquiry “clearly a political witch hunt” and asserting without evidence that details of the nonpartisan review were leaked to the news media by “Biden administration holdovers.”

The remarks appeared in a written statement by Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, who also acknowledged for the first time publicly that Hegseth has provided a statement to the Defense Department inspector general’s team that makes clear his belief that “this entire exercise is a sham, conducted in bad faith and with extreme bias.”

The choice of words — “witch hunt” — borrows from language invoked by President Donald Trump when his actions have faced scrutiny and appears to be a preemptive strike designed to undermine the review’s legitimacy even before the inspector general’s findings are released publicly. That could happen within weeks.

The inspector general review, requested on a bipartisan basis by Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Jack Reed (Rhode Island), the committee’s top Democrat, is expected to dissect the degree to which Hegseth and his team followed Defense Department policy while using unclassified, commercial messaging applications, especially Signal, for official business.

https://wapo.st/3Hcq0H3

Hit dog hollers.

[C_U_L8R]

1. Nothing screams 'I'm Guilty' louder

than this infantile "witch hunt' whine.

[Norrrm]

2. Would Hegseth have used an unsecure comms system if he was sober?

[mdbl]

3. What is with these asshole royally F'ing up and then blaming everyone else

Isn't any in Congress embarrassed they have allowed this to go on for so long?

[Martin68]

4. This suggests the Pentagon is taking the charges seriously.

[TomSlick]

5. Or, the DoD Inspector General is taking it seriously.

Inspectors General tend to take the job seriously - not matter who is implicated.

[Karasu]

6. Only in this fascist regime would he STILL have his fucking job after that disaster.