The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, used his personal phone to send information about US military operations in Yemen to a group of signals from 13 people, including his wife and brother, two sources with knowledge of the subject confirmed to NBC News.
He did it after an assistant had warned him that he was careful not to share confidential information about a non -safe communications system before Yemen’s operation, sources said.
The development occurs approximately one month after it was made public that Hegesh shared strike details in Yemen in a separate signal chat with the senior administration officials. The Atlantic chief editor was added to that chain.
The New York Times first reported the existence of the second signal chat.
The Times cited four unidentified sources. Some of them, The Times reported that the information that Hegseth sent in the second chat, such as the flight schedule of the FA-18 aircraft used, seemed to be similar to the information he had shared in the signal chat informed by the editor of The Atlantic. A source confirmed that to NBC News.
Sean Parnell, the spokesman for the Chief Defense Department, denied that Hegseth had shared classified information. “There was no information classified in any signal chat,” he said in X.
Anna Kelly, White House Press Secretary, minimized the importance of the second group chat.
“No matter how many times the inherited media try to resurrect the same history, they cannot change the fact that no classified information was shared,” he said in a statement.
Thirteen people were in the second chat of the signal group, but no other cabinet level officials were included, the two sources said.
The participants included Joe Kasper, the Hegseth Cabinet Chief; Darin Selnick, his deputy director of Cabinet; Eric Geressy, a retired sergeant from the army and hegseth advisor; Tim Parlatore, Legal Advisor of Hegseth and Marine Commander in the body of the judge General Lawyer; Hegesh’s brother, Phil, Hegseth main advisor for the National Security Department; and Hegesh’s wife, Jennifer, according to the two sources.
In March, the Atlantic Chief Editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, was added by error to a signal chat with multiple national security leaders, in which Hegseth shared operational plans to hit military objectives in Yemen before they occurred. That chat is now the subject of an investigation carried out by the Inspector General of the Department of Defense.
In both cases, Hegseth used his personal phone, instead of his officer, the two sources said.
Hegesh was the subject of scrutiny last month after it was revealed that his wife, a former Fox News producer, attended sensitive meetings of the Department of Defense with British and NATO leaders. Jennifer Hegesh is not a pentagon employee.
Hegesh’s brother, Phil, is used in the Pentagon as an advisor to the Hegseth National Security Department, but it is not clear why he or Jennifer Hegseth would need to know or be aware of the information about military strikes in Yemen.
Recent billing in the Pentagon
The Department of Defense has had a great turnover last week. Two of Hegesh’s main advisors, Dan Caldwell and Selnick, were escorted the Pentagon earlier last week in relation to an accusations investigation of a confidential information leak.
The official who announced the investigation into the alleged escape weeks ago, the head of the Cabinet of Hegseth, Joe Kasper, left his role in the Pentagon at the end of last week, Politico reported. And Colin Carroll, chief of cabinet of the Secretary of Defense of the Vice President, was also forced to leave at the end of last week.
Caldwell, Selnick and Carroll said in a joint statement of social networks on Saturday saying that he did not know why they were being investigated, saying: “The unidentified Pentagon officials have slandered our character with attacks without foundation at our door.”
The Democrats quickly reacted to Sunday’s news. The senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., published in X that Hegseth “must be fired.”
“The details continue to come out,” said Schumer. “We continue learning how Pete Hegesh puts lives at risk. But Trump is still too weak to say goodbye.”
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the main Democrat of the Intelligence Committee, said in X: “The last story about Pete Hegseth’s carelessness with confidential information is another alarming example in the pattern of uninterrupted incompetence of this administration. It should give up.”
Sen Tammy Duckworth, D-Bill., A veteran military, called Hegseth “a threat to our national security” in a statement.
“Every day he stays at work is another day that the life of our troops is in danger,” he said.
