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Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said it would be “entirely appropriate” for an inspector general to investigate the Trump administration’s use of Signal to discuss an imminent military attack and how a reporter was inadvertently added to the discussion, becoming among the first congressional Republicans to publicly back a probe into the matter.
“It’s entirely appropriate for the inspector general to be able to look at it and be able to ask two questions: One is obviously, how did a reporter get into this thread in the conversation,” Lankford said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union. “The second part of the conversation is when individuals from the administration are not sitting at their desk in a classified setting on a classified computer, how do they communicate to each other?”
Lankford said resignation calls for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who outlined plans for the strike in the Signal chat, are “overkill.”
“He is stepping in and has actually led a very successful first attack here on somebody that had attacked the United States over and over again during the Biden administration and had very limited response,” Lankford said.
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I., sent a letter last week to the acting Inspector General of the Department of Defense asking for a formal review of the official’s use of “unclassified networks” to discuss sensitive and classified information and the sharing of that information with “those who not have proper clearance.”
The two additionally requested a briefing before the Senate Armed Services Committee once the review is complete.
Wicker said last week he sent a similar letter to the White House in “an attempt to get ground truth,” and requested a briefing from a “senior person” on the matter.
“The information as published recently appears to me to be of such a sensitive nature that, based on my knowledge, I would have wanted it classified,” the Wicker told reporters.
