United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shared details about planned bombing raids on Yemen in a second Signal group chat that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, US media has reported.
The reports come after Hegseth attracted scrutiny last month when the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine revealed that the defence chief had shared details about upcoming air strikes on Houthi rebels in a Signal group chat that the journalist had been mistakenly added to.
Hegseth’s discussions in the second group chat similarly involved planned strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, The New York Times and CNN reported on Sunday, citing multiple unnamed sources.
The information shared by Hegseth in the second chat included “flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen,” The Times reported, citing “people with knowledge of the chat”.
Hegseth set up the second group chat before his confirmation as defence secretary to coordinate with members of his personal and professional inner circle, the outlets said.
Hegseth’s brother, Phil, and his personal lawyer, Tim Parlatore, are both employed at the Defense Department, but his wife, Jennifer, a former Fox News producer, is not.
In response to an inquiry from Al Jazeera, Chief Pentagon Spokesman Sean Parnell called the reports an “old story – back from the dead”.
“The Trump-hating media continues to be obsessed with destroying anyone committed to President [Donald] Trump’s agenda,” Parnell said in a statement.
“This time, the New York Times – and all other Fake News that repeat their garbage – are enthusiastically taking the grievances of disgruntled former employees as the sole sources for their article. They relied only on the words of people who were fired this week and appear to have a motive to sabotage the Secretary and the President’s agenda.”
Parnell said no classified information had been shared in any Signal chat.
“What is true is that the Office of the Secretary of Defense is continuing to become stronger and more efficient in executing President Trump’s agenda. We’ve already achieved so much for the American warfighter, and will never back down,” he said.
The disclosure of military information in the first Signal group chat – which included Hegseth, US Vice President JD Vance and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz, among other top officials in Trump’s administration – is currently being investigated by the Pentagon’s acting inspector general.
The latest controversy involving Hegseth’s leadership follows a week of personnel upheaval at the Pentagon.
Four members of Hegseth’s inner circle, including his former press secretary John Ullyot, have been removed over the last week amid a widening probe into leaks of information.
On Sunday, Ullyot said that the Pentagon was in “disarray” and “total chaos” under the defence chief’s leadership.
“The dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president — who deserves better from his senior leadership,” Ullyot wrote in an opinion piece published by Politico Magazine.
Ullyot announced his resignation on Wednesday, following the departures of Colin Carroll, chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg; Darin Selnick, Hegseth’s deputy chief of staff; and Dan Caldwell, one of Hegseth’s aides.
In a statement on Sunday, Carroll, Selnick and Caldwell said they had been slandered and subjected to “baseless attacks” ahead of their dismissal.
“All three of us served our country honorably in uniform – for two of us, this included deployments to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, based on our collective service, we understand the importance of information security and worked every day to protect it,” the three men said in the statement.
“At this time, we still have not been told what exactly we were investigated for, if there is still an active investigation, or if there was even a real investigation of ‘leaks’ to begin with.”