The White House has apparently begun the initial steps towards finding a likely replacement for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after he was accused of leaking classified military information in a private chat group that involved close relatives.
NPR, citing an unnamed American official, said this internal procedure started after The New York Times reported on Sunday that Hegseth allegedly shared information about U.S. military operations against Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Times reported that the event occurred on March 15 and involved a Signal chat group.
The report says that Hegseth, on his own phone, established an exclusive Signal group named "Defense | Team Huddle" in January. The group members allegedly included his wife, Jennifer Hegseth (a former Fox News producer), his brother, his personal lawyer, and about a dozen other close associates. In the said group, Hegseth allegedly shared confidential materials like the flight schedules of F/A-18 Hornet aircraft.
This expose by The New York Times comes after a previous report by The Atlantic, which had revealed another Signal chat channel, initially created for senior officials dealing with national security issues.
Yonhap News Agency had earlier reported that Hegseth had been in the spotlight for sharing strike-related information in another Signal chat, which had inadvertently included a journalist.
President Donald Trump weighed in on the controversy early on White House Easter Egg Roll day, brushing off The New York Times report.
"Pete's doing a tremendous job. Everyone's happy," Trump told reporters, calling the NYT report "fake news."
Repeating the President's tone, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt took to X (formerly Twitter) to debunk the NPR report.
This NPR report is complete FAKE NEWS on the basis of one anonymous source who obviously doesn't know what they are discussing," Leavitt tweeted. "As the President stated this morning, he stands firmly behind SecDef.
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