WASHINGTON (Reuters) — US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared details of a March attack on Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis before it took place in a message group that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, the New York Times reported on Sunday, raising more questions about his use of an unclassified messaging system to share highly sensitive security details.
Hegseth allegedly shared the same details of the attack that were revealed last month by The Atlantic magazine after its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was included in a separate chat on the Signal app by mistake, in an embarrassing incident involving all of President Donald Trump’s most senior national security officials.
That Signal chat saw officials including Hegseth and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz discuss the coming strikes, which took place on March 15. Goldberg was exposed to discussions between the top officials about the strikes, which he then reported on after the bombings went ahead.
The revelation sparked an uproar, with Trump’s administration facing a scandal over the accidental leak. A Pentagon Inspector-General’s probe into that leak is ongoing.
Trump largely pinned the blame for the earlier leak on Waltz, but dismissed calls to fire top officials and insisted instead on what he called the success of the raids on the Yemeni rebels.
The Times, citing four sources familiar with the message group, said that the second chat included details of the schedule of the air strikes, similarly to the first chat reported on by The Atlantic.
Pete Hegseth, US President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for defense secretary, testifies during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Capitol Hill on January 14, 2025, in Washington, DC. (ALLISON ROBBERT / AFP)
The paper said the chat was created by Hegseth himself before he was confirmed as defense secretary, and included around a dozen people in his inner circle. He used his private phone to access it.
Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer, a former Fox News producer, has also reportedly attended sensitive meetings with foreign military counterparts, the Wall Street Journal has separately reported.
A source with knowledge of the matter told The Times that Hegseth was cautioned by aides in the days before the Yemen strikes to refrain from sharing delicate operational information in his Signal group chat.
Revelations of another use of Signal for classified information come as one of Hegseth’s leading advisers, Dan Caldwell, was escorted from the Pentagon last week after being identified during an investigation into leaks at the Department of Defense, a US official told Reuters.
Following Caldwell’s departure, 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 put on administrative leave, officials said.
The Senate’s top Democrat demanded that the defense secretary be dismissed over the blunders.
“We keep learning how Pete Hegseth put lives at risk,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a post to X. “But Trump is still too weak to fire him. Pete Hegseth must be fired.”
The Trump administration has aggressively pursued leaks, an effort that has been enthusiastically embraced by Hegseth at the Pentagon.
The Pentagon was not immediately available for comment. The White House did not immediately return a message.
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