U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared details of a March attack on Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen in a messaging group that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Sunday.
The disclosure of the second Signal chat raises further questions about Mr. Hegseth's use of the unclassified messaging system to share sensitive security information and comes at a particularly sensitive time for him, after senior Pentagon officials were suspended last week as part of an internal investigation into leaks.
In the second chat, Mr. Hegseth shared details of an attack similar to those revealed last month by The Atlantic magazine after its editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was mistakenly included in a separate chat on the Signal app, an embarrassing incident that implicated all of President Donald Trump’s top national security officials.
A source familiar with the situation, who asked not to be named, said the second chat involved about a dozen people and was created during the confirmation process to discuss administrative matters rather than detailed military planning.
According to the source, the details of the airstrikes schedule were discussed in the chat.
Mr. Hegseth's wife, Jennifer, a former Fox News producer, attended confidential meetings with foreign military counterparts, according to photographs released by the Pentagon.
During a meeting between Mr Hegseth and his British counterpart at the Pentagon in March, his wife could be seen sitting behind him.
Mr. Hegseth's brother is the Department of Homeland Security's representative at the Pentagon.
The Trump administration has aggressively pursued leaks, an effort that has been enthusiastically supported by Mr. Hegseth at the Pentagon.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The White House did not immediately respond to a message.
A turbulent moment for Hegseth
Democratic lawmakers said Mr. Hegseth could no longer serve in his position.
“We continue to learn how Pete Hegseth put lives at risk,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote in a message to X. “But Trump is still too weak to fire him. Pete Hegseth must be fired.”
Senator Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran who was seriously wounded in combat in 2004, said Mr. Hegseth “should resign in disgrace.”
A US Pentagon official questioned how Mr Hegseth could keep his job after the latest news.
The latest revelation comes days after Dan Caldwell, one of Mr Hegseth's top advisers, was forced out of the Pentagon after his identity was revealed during an investigation into leaks at the Defense Department.
While Mr. Caldwell is not as well known as other senior Pentagon officials, he played an important role for Mr. Hegseth and was named by the secretary as the Pentagon's point person in the first Signal chat.
“We are incredibly disappointed with the way our service at the Department of Defense ended,” Mr. Caldwell wrote on X on Saturday. “Unnamed Pentagon officials slandered us with baseless attacks as we left.”
Following Mr. Caldwell's departure, less senior officials Darin Selnick, who recently became Mr. Hegseth's deputy chief of staff, and Colin Carroll, who was chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg, were placed on administrative leave and fired on Friday.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
