US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared details of a March attack on Iran-aligned Houthi militants in Yemen in a message group that included his wife, brother, and personal lawyer, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing its own sources. The Pentagon reacted, writes UNN.
Details
The disclosure of the second Signal chat, as indicated, raises even more questions about Hegseth's use of a non-classified messaging system to communicate highly sensitive security details. This comes at an especially delicate time for him, as senior officials were fired from the Pentagon last week as part of an internal investigation into the leaks.
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In the second chat, Hegseth, according to sources, shared details of an attack similar to the one reported last month by The Atlantic magazine after its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was mistakenly included in a separate chat on the Signal app that included all of President Donald Trump's top national security officials.
A person familiar with the matter, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the second chat included about a dozen people and was created during his confirmation process to discuss administrative matters, not detailed military planning. According to the source, the chat discussed details of airstrike schedules.
Hegseth's wife, Jennifer, a former Fox News producer, attended classified meetings with foreign military counterparts. This is evident from photographs released by the Pentagon. During Hegseth's meeting with his British counterpart at the Pentagon in March, his wife sat behind him. Hegseth's brother is a representative of the Department of Homeland Security at the Pentagon.
Trump administration's reaction
The Trump administration is aggressively fighting information leaks, and Hegseth enthusiastically supports these efforts at the Pentagon.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said that the media "enthusiastically embrace complaints from disgruntled former employees as the sole source for their articles."
"The Trump-hating media continues to be obsessed with destroying anyone who is committed to President Trump's agenda. We have already done so much for the American warrior and will never back down," Parnell said in a statement on X.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said that "recently fired 'leak sources' continue to distort the truth to soothe their bruised egos and undermine the president's agenda.
Democrats' statement
Democratic lawmakers said Hegseth can no longer remain in his position.
"We continue to learn how Pete Hegseth put people's lives at risk. But Trump is still too weak to fire him. Pete Hegseth must be fired," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer in a post on X.
Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran who was severely wounded in combat in 2004, said Hegseth "should resign in disgrace."
A Pentagon representative questioned how Hegseth could remain in office after the latest news, Reuters reported.