WASHINGTON (AP) — The New York Times revealed that Pete Hegseth, the head of the Pentagon, shared plans and details of an attack against the Houthi rebels in Yemen on a Signal chat in March with his wife, brother, and others, just as he did in another group with officials from the Trump administration.
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A person familiar with the content and recipients of the messages, who spoke on condition of anonymity to address sensitive issues, confirmed the second chat to The Associated Press. They said it included 13 people and was called “Defense Team Meeting”.
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Despite the new evidence against Hegseth, the White House expressed its support for the Secretary of Defense on Monday, even though they did not deny that he had shared such information in a second chat. They focused their responses on what they called “disgruntled or resentful workers” whom they blamed for leaking information to the media, and insisted that no classified information had been disclosed.
What did Trump say to defend Hegseth?
“It’s just fake news. They just make up stories,” said President Donald Trump to the press. “I guess it sounds like disgruntled employees. You know, he was put there to get rid of a lot of bad people, and that’s what he’s doing. So you don’t always have friends when you do that,” Trump added.
The government’s stance was to resist democratic demands to fire Hegseth at a time when the Pentagon is embroiled in deep turmoil that includes the departure of several senior advisors and an internal investigation into information leaks.
The White House also tried to divert attention from the national security implications of the new Signal revelation, presenting it as the result of an institutional power struggle between Hegseth and career workers. But some of the officials who recently departed, whom the government seemed to label as resentful, were part of Hegseth’s inner circle and were appointed to their positions when he took office.
“This is what happens when the entire Pentagon is working against you and working against the monumental change you are trying to implement,” said Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary.
The latest news increased doubts about the trial of the troubled Pentagon chief, after last month’s revelation of his participation in a Signal chat with senior Trump government officials, where classified details were shared about the military airstrike against Houthi extremists in Yemen.
“Pete Hegseth should be fired,” said Chuck Schumer, Democratic leader of the Senate.
What did Hegseth say about the new revelations against him?
Hegseth, while speaking to journalists during the Easter Egg Roll at the White House, did not address the substance of the accusations or the implications they represented for national security, but instead attacked the media.
“They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees and then try to attack and burn people and ruin their reputation,” Hegseth expressed. “It’s not going to work with me. Because we are changing the Department of Defense, putting the Pentagon back in the hands of fighters. And the anonymous slanders of resentful former employees about old news don’t matter.”
What are the military secrets revealed by Hegseth?
The first chat where Hegseth revealed secrets of an attack, created by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, included several cabinet members and came to light because they also inexplicably added Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine, to the group.
US authorities have repeatedly insisted that the information shared on Signal was not classified, although the content of that chat, published by The Atlantic, shows that Hegseth listed weapon systems and a timeline of the attack against the Houthis.
Multiple current and retired military officials argued that the takeoff and ammunition launch times are classified information, and that publishing those details on an insecure channel, such as the Signal app, could have put the pilots at risk.
The Trump administration has faced criticism for not having taken action yet against senior national security officials who discussed plans for the Signal attack, and the latest report has sparked new calls for Hegseth to be removed.
“The details keep coming to light. We continue to discover how Pete Hegseth put lives at risk. But Trump is still too weak to fire him,” Schumer commented on Sunday in X.
The New York Times reported that the group in the second chat included Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer, who is a former producer for Fox News, and his brother Phil Hegseth, who was hired by the Pentagon as a liaison to the Department of Homeland Security and senior advisor.
According to the report, the second chat contained the same hours of warplane launches as the first chat.