Washington:
Before the US launched military strikes on Yemen on March 15, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth shared critical information about the planned attacks to a private Signal group chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, the New York Times reported on Sunday, raising more questions about the Trump official’s reliance on an unclassified messaging system to share highly sensitive security details.
The existence of the Signal group chat created by US national security adviser Mike Waltz, in which Hegseth divulged critical details of the attack plans to other Trump administration officials, was made public last month by Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic, who had been accidentally added to the group involving all of President Donald Trump’s most senior national security officials.
The new report said Hegseth allegedly shared the same details of the attack that were revealed last month by The Atlantic magazine. The NYT, citing four sources familiar with the message group, said that the second chat included details of the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets that would strike Houthi rebel targets in Yemen.
Unlike the group in which The Atlantic was mistakenly included by Waltz, the other chat was created by Hegseth himself in January, and it reportedly included his wife and about a dozen other people from his personal and professional inner circle. The group was named “Defense | Team Huddle,” and was operated through his private phone, rather than his government one, the NYT report said.
Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer, a former Fox News producer, has also reportedly attended sensitive meetings with foreign military counterparts, the Wall Street Journal has separately reported.
The previously unreported existence of a second Signal chat in which Hegseth shared highly sensitive military information adds to the series of developments that have put his management and judgment under scrutiny. The fact that the Trump team member shared the top secret plans more than once is likely to add to growing criticism of the former Fox weekend anchor’s ability to manage the Pentagon, a massive organisation which operates in matters of life and death around the globe.
The report said that Hegseth reportedly shared the secret plans on both chats at around the same time.
Revelations of another use of Signal for classified information come as one of Hegseth’s leading advisers, Dan Caldwell, was escorted from the Pentagon last week after being identified during an investigation into leaks at the Department of Defence, a US official told Reuters.
Following Caldwell’s departure, less senior officials Darin Selnick, who recently became Hegseth’s deputy chief of staff, and Colin Carroll, who was chief of staff to Deputy Defence Secretary Steve Feinberg, were put on administrative leave, officials said.
The Senate’s top Democrat demanded that the defence secretary be dismissed over the blunders.
“We keep learning how Pete Hegseth put lives at risk,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a post to X.
“But Trump is still too weak to fire him. Pete Hegseth must be fired.”
The Trump administration has aggressively pursued leaks, an effort that has been enthusiastically embraced by Hegseth at the Pentagon.
The Pentagon was not immediately available for comment. The White House did not immediately return a message.
