Pete Hegseth Conducted Pentagon Business on ‘At Least a Dozen Separate’ Signal Chats: Report

AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reportedly used the messaging app Signal in “at least a dozen separate chats” to conduct official Pentagon business, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Unnamed sources “familiar with his management practices” told the Wall Street Journal that Hegseth used Signal extensively and preferred “to run the Defense Department’s day-to-day operations” using the mobile app over standard Pentagon communication lines.

“In one case, he told aides on the encrypted app to inform foreign governments about an unfolding military operation,” the Journal reported. “He also used the nongovernmental message service to discuss media appearances, foreign travel, his schedule, and other unclassified but sensitive information, two people said.”

In March, Hegseth and other senior Trump administration officials received backlash after it was revealed that they had discussed the U.S. military’s plans for the bombing of Yemen in a Signal group chat, which The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg had accidentally been added to.

The acting inspector general of the Pentagon subsequently launched an investigation into Hegseth’s use of the “unclassified commercially available application” to share sensitive military actions.

Hegseth received further backlash in April after it was reported that he may have shared information about the military’s bombing campaign in Yemen in a second Signal group chat with members of his family.

It was also reported that Hegseth set up Signal on several Pentagon computers in response to a ban on personal phones.