Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is again at the center of controversy for reportedly sharing classified information about a planned March military strike targeting Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen through a Signal group chat, this time including his wife, brother, and personal attorney, The New York Times reported and the Associated Press confirmed.
The revelation has raised renewed concerns over Hegseth's handling of national security details through a non-secure messaging system. Hegseth shared the same information about the strike that The Atlantic revealed last month, after its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was added to a different Signal chat group that involved President Donald Trump's top national security officials in a major embarrassment.
Hegseth's Ways Raise Concerns Over National Security
The second group chat on Signal—dubbed 'Defense Team Huddle'—was created by Hegseth himself and included 13 participants, according to The New York Times. Signal is a publicly available app not approved for use to communicate classified, sensitive national defense details.
The Times, citing four people familiar with the group, reported that the chat shared extensive information, including "the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen."
Unlike the earlier incident where Goldberg was accidentally added to a Signal group chat, this particular chat was knowingly created by Hegseth.
The Wall Street Journal separately reported that Hegseth's wife, Jennifer Hegseth, a former Fox News producer, also attended the confidential meetings with foreign military officials.
Hegseth's wife, Jennifer, does not work for the Department of Defense. His brother, Phil Hegseth, is a senior adviser and liaison to the Department of Homeland Security, while his lawyer, Tim Parlatore, has a job at the Pentagon, but it's unclear whether they have the necessary clearance for a need-to-know basis regarding military operations.
However, both Phil and Jennifer have been accompanying the Defense Secretary on official trips and have attended high-level meetings.
"The truth is that there is an informal group chat that started before confirmation of his closest advisers," a U.S. official told The New York Times. "Nothing classified was ever discussed on that chat."
Chaos in Pentagon
The revelation of yet another instance of classified information being shared via Signal comes as one of Hegseth's top advisers, Dan Caldwell, was escorted out of the Pentagon last week after being identified during an investigation into leaks within the Department of Defense, a U.S. official told Reuters.
Days after Caldwell's removal, two other officials—Darin Selnick, recently appointed as Hegseth's deputy chief of staff, and Colin Carroll, who was chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg—were put on administrative leave, sources confirmed.
In response to the growing fallout, the Senate's top Democrat has called for Hegseth's removal, citing serious missteps in handling sensitive information.
"We keep learning how Pete Hegseth put lives at risk," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote on X. "But Trump is still too weak to fire him. Pete Hegseth must be fired."
Meanwhile, the White House has debunked the story and put the blame on the recently fired staffers. "No matter how many times the legacy media tries to resurrect the same non-story, they can't change the fact that no classified information was shared," Anna Kelly said.
"Recently-fired 'leakers' are continuing to misrepresent the truth to soothe their shattered egos and undermine the President's agenda, but the administration will continue to hold them accountable."
