Washington DC - Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth failed to initiate a routine investigation into whether the SignalGate incident had compromised national security, according to new reports.

Multiple sources told CNN that Hegseth never requested that the Department of Defense conduct a probe into the SignalGate scandal, breaking a long-standing precedent designed to protect national security.

Usually, a damage assessment report would be requested by the head of the Pentagon to establish what sensitive information and military or intelligence operations were compromised in the case of a major security breach.

Hegseth was found to have shared sensitive, classified military plans for deadly airstrikes on Yemen on a Signal chat group he shared with other high-ranking officials in the Trump administration.

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Since he never requested a damage assessment report, no such review took place, making it still unclear how bad his leak of sensitive information had been.

"100% a breach like that would warrant a top-to bottom damage assessment by both DoD and the IC," a former senior defense official told CNN.

Former White House official Brianna Rosen said that even if Hegseth hadn't cooperated with an investigation, "analysts can evaluate what material was shared, who had access to it, and any potential operational or counterintelligence implications."

Instead of conducting an investigation into the implications of SignalGate itself, Hegseth reportedly doubled down on his attempts to root out dissidents within the Pentagon in a desperate bid to identify who was leaking damaging stories about him to the press.

As a result, anonymous officials warn that Hegseth risked further endangering US troops, as well as highly sensitive military operations.