US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has shared details of a March attack on Iran-aligned Yemeni Houthis in a chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, Reuters reported, citing a source familiar with the matter.
In the second chat, Hegseth shared details of an attack similar to one reported by The Atlantic magazine last month after its editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg was mistakenly included in a separate chat on the Signal app, as a result of an unfortunate incident involving all of President Donald Trump's top national security officials.
The source told the publication that the second chat included about a dozen people and was created during his confirmation process to discuss administrative matters, not detailed military planning.
The chat, the person said, discussed details of the airstrike schedule.
Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer, a former Fox News producer, was involved in sensitive meetings with foreign military colleagues, according to photos the Pentagon released to the public. Hegseth’s brother is a Department of Homeland Security official at the Pentagon.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said, without providing any evidence, that the media “enthusiastically embraced the complaints of disgruntled former employees as the sole source for their stories.”
White House press secretary Anna Kelly said that “recently fired leakers” were continuing to distort the truth to soothe their bruised egos and undermine the President’s agenda.
Democratic lawmakers said Hegseth could no longer remain in his position. A Pentagon official questioned how Hegseth could remain in office after the latest news.
The latest revelation comes days after Dan Caldwell, one of Hegseth's top advisers, was removed from the Pentagon after he was identified during an investigation into leaks at the Department of Defense.
Following Caldwell's leave, less senior officials Darin Selnick, who recently became 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.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on March 25, Politico reported that the United States was considering firing Donald Trump's national security adviser, Mike Waltz, because he added a journalist from The Atlantic to a secret chat on the Signal messenger. Trump then supported his adviser.
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