The Trump administration has completed a review into Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth”s use of a messaging app to discuss military actions — and now a watchdog aims to make those findings public.

In March, news broke that Hegseth and several other members of President Donald Trump’s cabinet used the encrypted, auto-deleting Signal messaging app to discuss attacks in the Middle East.

In turn, nonprofit government transparency organization American Oversight filed the first lawsuit in the matter — ultimately prompting a court order directing government officials to preserve records and spurring an office of the inspector general (OIG) investigation.

Now, the watchdog has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking release of the OIG findings.

In a six-page FOIA request filed Wednesday with the Department of Defense OIG and obtained by Law&Crime, American Oversight is asking for copies of “any DOD OIG report(s) regarding DOD Secretary Pete Hegseth’s and other DOD personnel’s use of commercial messaging applications, including Signal, to conduct government business.”

The request offers the following justification for public disclosure:

The public has a significant interest in reports that could shed light on Secretary Hegseth’s use of the commercial messaging applications like Signal to conduct government business, particularly in light of reporting that Secretary Hegseth previously shared operational military details outside the government via Signal. Records with the potential to shed light on this matter would contribute significantly to public understanding of operations of the federal government, including whether and to what extent Secretary Hegseth has used unclassified networks like Signal to discuss sensitive and classified information, and whether and to what extent such communications, if any, have been preserved in accordance with record retention laws.

The OIG investigation itself is no secret.

In April, Acting DOD Inspector General Steven A. Stebbins announced the evaluation. A two-page memo describes the inquiry “into recent public reporting on the Secretary of Defense’s use of an unclassified commercially available messaging application to discuss information pertaining to military actions in Yemen in March 2025.”

In a press release announcing the FOIA request, American Oversight accused Hegseth of taking “actions reportedly aimed at undermining whistleblowers at DOD.” Those allegations are based on an early October speech to military leaders, reported by the Reuters wire service, in which the secretary complained the OIG process has been “weaponized, putting complainers, poor performers, and ideologues in the driver’s seat.”

American Oversight says those concerns are also buoyed by a September DOD memo signed by Hegseth which directed the “Office of the Inspector General of the Department of War” to undertake a series of modifications related to status updates, complaint tracking, timelines for investigations and vetting whistleblower complaints with a “credibility assessment” based on the “credible-evidence standard.”

The group describes those developments as alarming — and appears intent on getting the OIG report released in quick fashion.

“Secretary Hegseth and other top officials put our national security at risk and jeopardized the lives of our brave men and women in uniform when they used Signal to discuss sensitive military operations,” Executive Director of American Oversight Chioma Chukwu said in a statement. “The American people have a right to know what the inspector general uncovered about this reckless misconduct — including whether and how these officials broke the law. The IG’s independent report is a critical part of exposing the truth.”