Last month, after news broke that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was using Signal to discuss sensitive military operations in violation of Pentagon policy, one of his closest military aides made an unusual inquiry to the Defense Department’s chief information officer: Would they grant an exception so Hegseth could keep using Signal freely?

The question came from Col. Ricky Buria, a former aide to previous Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin who has rapidly established himself as a key member of Hegseth’s inner circle, multiple people familiar with the matter told CNN. The Signal inquiry raised eyebrows among other senior Pentagon officials, who wondered whether the request was appropriate — especially from a uniformed officer, rather than Hegseth’s civilian chief of staff.

Weeks earlier, before The Atlantic revealed that Hegseth had been using the app to discuss detailed military plans, Buria had pushed to get Hegseth an extra desktop computer in his office that he could use Signal on, ostensibly for personal communications so he could more easily text friends and family from the Pentagon, the sources said.

The Secretary’s office is considered a secure space, where cell phones are not typically permitted. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency recommends that highly targeted individuals use Signal, but DoD policy says Signal is “NOT authorized to access, transmit, process non-public DoD information.” It notes that requests for exceptions to that policy can be submitted to the chief information officer.

It is not clear whether Hegseth was ever given an exception to use Signal freely, or if he has continued to use it for sensitive military planning in the fallout of the Signalgate episode.

In a statement to CNN, Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said, “The Secretary of Defense’s use of communications systems and channels is classified. However, we can confirm that the Secretary has never used and does not currently use Signal on his government computer.”

Parnell did not comment on why Hegseth had another computer set up in his office that Signal was installed on.

A rapid rise in Hegseth’s inner circle
Buria, a career Marine with multiple combat deployments who served as both Austin and Hegseth’s junior military assistant, has for months been straddling the line between military aide and civilian adviser, the sources said. And last week, he submitted his retirement papers to the Marine Corps, a Marine spokesperson confirmed.

On Thursday morning, Buria was at the Pentagon in civilian clothing and greeted the NATO Secretary General before accompanying him, Hegseth, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Pentagon’s head of policy into a meeting room.