‘Signalgate' Needs to Be Investigated, Says Ex-Deputy Spokesperson for U.S. Defense Department
Courtesy of Sabrina Singh
Sabrina Singh, former U.S. deputy press secretary at the Defense Department
WASHINGTON — Sabrina Singh, who served as the U.S. Defense Department's deputy press secretary under former President Joe Biden, said in an online interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth provided classified information on U.S. military operations through the Signal messaging service, and labeled the behavior 'egregious.'
Singh called for a bipartisan congressional investigation into the so-called Signalgate scandal.
The controversy surrounding use of the app by U.S. government officials has raised questions about the sloppy management of information in the administration of President Donald Trump.
The following excerpts from the interview have been edited for flow and clarity.
***
The Yomiuri Shimbun: Do you think the details provided by Hegseth were classified information?
Sabrina Singh: Secretary Hegseth's comments and texts in that Signal chat were about a military operation that hadn't even begun. So anytime you're talking about an operation before it starts, all of those details are classified.
The fact that Pete Hegseth put details about the operation into an unsecure, unclassified Signal chat that could have been intercepted by our adversaries really put at risk our pilots' lives and the operation.
What makes this so egregious is this wasn't just some individual; this was the secretary of defense, who's supposed to safeguard and protect the lives of our service members, our men and women in uniform, and our civilians that support them as well. And so to have the entire national security apparatus on a Signal chat, sharing classified information about an operation, you know it's very serious.
Yomiuri: Have you ever seen similar problems before?
Singh: No, certainly not. I mean, not during my time in the previous administration. We would never use Signal. Even though it's an encrypted app, it's not a secure app. It's not a classified system. It is still prone to hacking, to messages being intercepted by adversaries or cyber hacking groups.
Signal allows you the ability to delete messages. You know, you can set a timer, so it doesn't even comply with the Presidential Records Act, which allows for safekeeping of everything that goes on in an administration, so that's a problem also in and of itself.
Yomiuri: How do U.S. government officials exchange information on sensitive matters?
Singh: The secretary of defense in his office has multiple classified systems available to him at all times. So he has two different classified phone systems. He also has a classified way of conducting a video conference. If the president is in the [White House] Situation Room and the secretary is at his desk, he can easily have a video call with the president over a secure line. And then, of course, there's classified email systems, and those range from secret to a top-secret classification.
From an unclassified email system, you cannot forward a message to a classified system. And vice versa, a classified email cannot be forwarded to an unclassified system.
The secretary of defense, and I think, a majority of the people on that thread, that Signal chat, also have access to classified computers at their homes and classified devices on their person at all times. So there is really no excuse.
Yomiuri: How do you find the impact of Signalgate on U.S. allies and partner countries?
Singh: I think that something like this would certainly make partners and allies question how they share intelligence with the United States, because these are the highest-ranking members of the Cabinet talking about classified information before an operation. So that is going to really test the relationship with partners and allies. Can they trust the secretary that, if there is a joint operation, he's not going to put, classified information into a chat that could get intercepted by China or Russia or Iran?
Yomiuri: The Defense Department's Office of the Inspector General said that it would investigate whether the use of the app by Hegseth and other U.S. officials was appropriate. What should Congress do?
Singh: This should not be a partisan issue. This really should be a bipartisan issue where both sides of the aisle can come together and say how this was not handled right, and we need to investigate this.
Congress needs to play a role in making sure that our civilians, our men and women in uniform, our sources and methods on how we collect intelligence, are protected and safeguarded. Congress should be investigating this.
The acting inspector general at DOD has opened an investigation as well. So that's a good thing.
— This interview was conducted by Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent Takayuki Fuchigami and Riley Martinez on April 4.
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