Defense Secretary Pete Hegses shared details of the military airstrike in March Houtsis backed by Iran Reports say in Yemen in another signal message chat, including his wife and brother.
The New York Times was first reported A revelation from a second signal chat surrounding Sunday’s military strike. These same attack plans were shared in another chat with leaders of top administrations last month after Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg was accidentally added to the group.
The second chat has the same fighter startup time included in the first chat, and if shared before the strike, it could put the pilot at risk, which was said by several former and current officials.
Four people with second chat knowledge said the chat included his brother Phil, Fox News producer Jennifer, Hegseth’s wife, and his personal lawyer, Tim Parlatore.
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Defense Secretary Pete Hegses will speak in Washington at a meeting with El Salvador’s Minister of Defense Rene Merino Monroy at the Pentagon on Wednesday, April 16th, 2025. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)
Jennifer Heggs isn’t Ministry of Defense employee. However, she traveled with her husband abroad for a meeting with a foreign leader. Both Phil Hegseth and Parlatore are employed in the pentagon. It is unclear why any of them should be informed of future military strikes.
The second chat included 13 people. A person familiar with the issue spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity. They also confirmed that the chat was called “defense” team huddles.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell dismissed the report as “another old story, back from the dead.”
“The media that hates Trump continues to be obsessed with destroying those who have committed to President Trump’s agenda,” Parnell said. “This time, the New York Times and all the other fake news that repeats the garbage, eagerly incorporates the complaints of a dissatisfied former employee as the sole source of the article.”
Parnell claimed that the Times source was fired from pentagon Last week, “it appears to have motives to interfere with the secretary and the president’s agenda.”
Parnell claimed there was no classified information in the signal chat. This is the answer that Heggs previously argued about his first chat.
White House Similarly, late Sunday, the report dismissed it as “non-class,” suggesting that a disgruntled former Pentagon employee was spreading false claims.
“No matter how many times legacy media attempts to revive the same non-story, it cannot change the fact that the categorized information is not shared,” said White House assistant reporter Anna Kelly. “The recently fired ‘leaks’ continue to misrepresent the truth to ease their crushed ego and undermine the president’s agenda, but the administration continues to hold their accountable. ”
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Former Pentagon spokesman John Ulitt, who announced last week that he would resign without relevance from Leaks, wrote Op-Ed. Published on Politico On Sunday, he detailed what he called “Moon from Hell” inside the agency.
“President Donald Trump has a strong record to explain his top officials, and given that, it’s hard to see Defense Secretary Pete Hegses remained in his role for so long,” Uriot wrote.
He wrote that “this building is in turmoil under Hegses’s guidance,” after following the horrifying crisis and communication advice from “his new public relations team” on the first signal chat.
Uritt wrote that Trump “deserves better from his senior leader.”
First chat, setup National Security Advisor Mike WaltzIncludes several cabinet members. The chat, published by the Atlantic, shows that Hegses listed the timeline of Iran-backed attacks on the Houssis in Yemen last month.
The second chat group’s revelation has led to new criticism of Hegseth and President Donald Trump’s wider administration.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
