The report outlines the findings of a more than eight-month investigation into Hegseth’s use of Signal to share details of planned U.S. strikes in Yemen.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, part of the NATO Ministers of Defense Summit in Brussels, on Oct. 15.Nicolas Tucat / AFP - Getty Images file

The Defense Department Inspector General concluded in a report filed Tuesday that the information Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared on a group Signal chat about a pending military operation in Yemen was considered classified, according to two people who have read the report.

The report outlines the findings of a more than eight-month investigation into Hegseth`s use of Signal, an encrypted but unclassified messaging app, to share details of the planned U.S. strikes in March before they had begun.

It found that the information Hegseth shared had been marked "secret" and could have imperiled American troops had it been intercepted by a foreign adversary, the two people who have read the report said. The evaluation by the Defense Department Inspector General also concluded that Hegseth violated military regulations by using his personal phone for official business, according to those people.

Hegseth, who declined an interview with investigators but provided them a brief written statement, has maintained that he shared no classified information on the group chat. Hegseth said in his statement to investigators that he provided only information that he thought would not imperil either the mission or the troops conducting it.

The investigators for the inspector general noted that they did not agree with that assessment, according to the people familiar with the report`s findings.

The report also said that Hegseth, as the secretary of defense, is the "original classification authority" and in fact does have the authority to declassify intelligence based on his judgment.

But the inspector general did not address whether Hegseth took the proper steps to declassify the information shared in the chat, the two people said.

In a statement, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said the review is a "TOTAL exoneration of Secretary Hegseth and proves what we knew all along - no classified information was shared."

"This matter is resolved and the case is closed," he added.

Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, who sits on the Armed Services Committee, which oversees the Pentagon, spoke to reporters after reading the report.

"It said he was in violation of some DOD regulations," Kelly said. "So whether that`s breaking the law, you got to figure that out."

Added Kelly: "He needs to make sure he doesn`t do this again because the next time something really, really bad could happen."

The IG report was delivered to the Senate and House Armed Services and Intelligence committees, and lawmakers were reviewing it Wednesday, congressional aides said. A redacted version has not been released publicly.

The group chat, which included other top members of President Donald Trump`s national security team, became public after an editor for The Atlantic magazine was inadvertently added.

The report noted that Hegseth provided investigators with only a small number of his Signal messages, so the inspector general relied on the screenshots that were later published by The Atlantic.

NBC News has reported that minutes before U.S. fighter jets took off to begin their strikes against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen in March, Army Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, who led U.S. Central Command at the time, used a secure U.S. government system to send detailed information about the operation to Hegseth.

The material Kurilla sent included details about when U.S. fighters would take off and when they would hit their targets - information that, if it fell into the wrong hands, could have put the pilots of those jets into grave danger, NBC News has reported.

Much of that same information appeared on the Signal chat that Hegseth shared with other top Trump administration officials, and, on a separate chat, with members of his family and his personal attorney, three U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the exchanges told NBC News.

The release of the report comes at a sensitive moment for Hegseth, who is currently under scrutiny over a decision to launch a second military strike on an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean Sea that the Pentagon said was carrying 11 individuals. The first strike left at least two survivors.

"I didn`t personally see survivors," Hegseth told reporters during a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Tuesday. "The thing was on fire. It was exploded in fire and smoke. You can`t see it."

He added, "This is called the fog of war."