Pete Hegseth Reportedly Shared Attack Details With Wife and Brother in Second Signal Chat
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth may have shared details of a sensitive attack against Yemen in a second Signal app group chat with his family last month, according to a report published by The New York Times on Sunday.
The newspaper reported:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed information about forthcoming strikes in Yemen on March 15 in a private Signal group chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, according to four people with knowledge of the chat.
Some of those people said that the information Mr. Hegseth shared on the Signal chat included the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen — essentially the same attack plans that he shared on a separate Signal chat the same day that mistakenly included the editor of The Atlantic.
[…]
Unlike the chat in which The Atlantic was mistakenly included, the newly revealed one was created by Mr. Hegseth. It included his wife and about a dozen other people from his personal and professional inner circle in January, before his confirmation as defense secretary, and was named “Defense | Team Huddle,” the people familiar with the chat said. He used his private phone, rather than his government one, to access the Signal chat.
A person described as a “a U.S. official” told the Times, “The truth is that there is an informal group chat that started before confirmation of his closest advisers… Nothing classified was ever discussed on that chat.”
Hegseth is already under fire over his use of the Signal app to discuss potentially classified information with other members of the Trump cabinet last month in a chat with Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic.
In that conversation, Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and others discussed retaliatory strikes on the Houthis in Yemen.
The retaliatory attacks were carried out in a time and manner that was consistent with what Goldberg said was discussed in the chat he was mistakenly added to.
The Trump administration categorized the initial Signal chat saga as closed, with no top cabinet officials expected to be fired.
