Trump’s Defense Secretary Accidentally Texted War Plans to The Atlantic: ‘I Didn’t Think It Could Be Real,’ Editor Says

The Secretary of Defense was investigated by what ever investigators were left at the Department of Defense after the Secretary of Defense fired a good portion of them and was found to have not done anything questionable.

Cut and dry! Take that Liberals! You got owned again!

Always in His Presence said:

from the link:

WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday was given a final copy of the completed Defense Department Inspector General report that examined his sharing sensitive military information on a Signal group chat back in March, according to two people familiar with the investigation.

Are they the same people who said Trump was looking to replace Hegseth? How many times do people need to be embarrassed before they stop taking information from unviable, unsubstantiated sources?

Click to expand...

You could try working out who might have that information. (It is an intermediate bit of media literacy.)

For starters:
People in the SECDEF's office like his top aides, admins, chief of staff. They would likely know that a report was delivered.
Top ranking DOD officials like the Deputy Secretary, or the service branch secretaries. A good chance they would know about a delivered report.
The investigative team definitely knows.
The heads of the Senate and House Armed Forces committee (both parties) might also know by now as they will certainly be receiving the report at some point.

You could check the bios of the reporters. In this case both are Nat. Sec. reporters so that doesn't narrow anything (they typically have contacts with the related members of Congress, not just the Pentagon). If there was a "Congressional reporter" on the byline then we could be certain that one of the sources was from Congress.

Finally how do the reporters cite their sources? In this case with a rather bland "sources familiar with the investigation". Not particularly revelatory. This could even include private defense attorneys if any one has them.

If I had to guess, there is a Pentagon source and a Congressional one with one of the two having an existing "non-attribution" agreement with the report to let them know when the report is finished, followed by confirmation from across the Potomac.

Pentagon watchdog finds Hegseth’s use of Signal posed risk to US personnel, AP sources say​

[One source] also said the report concluded that Hegseth violated Pentagon policy by using his personal device for official business and it recommended better training for all Pentagon officials.