Prior to the U.S. beginning military action in Yemen on March 15, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly communicated essential information regarding the pending attacks through an unclassified group chat in Signal, including his wife, brother, and private attorney.
The report emerged Sunday from The New York Times, triggering alarms over Hegseth's decision to communicate using an unclassified messaging application the highly sensitive national security information.
The Signal group chat, established by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and one in which Hegseth shared critical attack information with other high-ranking Trump administration members, was earlier revealed by The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg. Goldberg was inadvertently added to the chat group, which consisted of major national security officials from President Donald Trump's regime.
The recent report states that Hegseth supposedly shared the same secret attack plans that had been detailed in The Atlantic last month. Referring to four sources familiar with the matter, The Times reported that the second chat contained flight timetables for F/A-18 Hornet jets to attack Houthi rebel positions in Yemen.
In contrast to the group Waltz assembled, which The Atlantic inappropriately found itself a member of, Hegseth allegedly established the second chat room in January. The group, known as "Defense | Team Huddle," was hosted on his personal phone and not on his government-issue phone. The group consisted of his wife and roughly a dozen others from both his personal and professional circles.
Hegseth's wife, Jennifer, a former producer for Fox News, has also been reported to have taken part in senior-level meetings with foreign military leaders, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The revelation of this second Signal group chat, where Hegseth had shared sensitive military information, has added to concerns about his decision-making and management skills. The fact that Hegseth had repeated the sharing of classified information in various forums is likely to add to growing criticisms of his leadership ability at the Pentagon, an organization tasked with issues of far-reaching global implications.
The Times story quoted that Hegseth posted the classified plans at the same time in both group chats.
The news comes after the recent resignation of one of Hegseth's most important advisers, Dan Caldwell, who was taken out of the Pentagon last week after being named in a leak probe. After Caldwell's resignation, officials Darin Selnick, the new deputy chief of staff for Hegseth, and Colin Carroll, former chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg, were put on administrative leave.
In response to the continuous controversies, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has demanded the ousting of Hegseth, urging that he be fired for his continued mishandling of classified information.
"We continue to learn about how Pete Hegseth jeopardized lives," Schumer said on X (formerly Twitter). "But Trump remains too cowardly to fire him. Pete Hegseth should be fired."
The Trump administration has pursued leaks aggressively, a campaign that has been promoted by Hegseth within the Pentagon. The Pentagon and the White House did not have an immediate comment.
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