The Pentagon chief shared plans to attack Houthi targets in another Signal chat.
His wife and brother were in the group, along with other people, according to the New York Times.
WashingtonThe Signal chat in which the journalist was mistakenly included The Atlantic Jeffrey Goldberg wasn't the only one sharing plans for the March 15 bombing of Houthi targets in Yemen. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth sent information detailing the operation—including fighter jet flight schedules—on another private group that included his wife, brother, and lawyer, among others, according to the report. New York Times. To make matters worse, Hegseth did it from his personal phone.
The revelation, which has also been published by other American media outlets, comes amid the Pentagon's investigation into Hegseth's use of the Signal app to lead the Pentagon.
Hegseth shared the information in a group where he was aware that there were people who were not members of the Pentagon – like his wife – and others who, despite being members of the Pentagon, it is not clear why they should know the details of the operation. New York Times, it would be practically the same plan he sent to the Signal chat where, by mistake, Jeffrey Goldberg was.
Hegseth's wife, Jennifer, is a former Fox producer and has already received criticism for accompanying her husband to sensitive meetings with foreign leaders. His brother Phil and his lawyer Tim Parlatore do work at the Department of Defense, but it is unclear why they should have access to such sensitive information. According to the American media, the chat included about ten people from his personal and professional inner circle. It was a group created to discuss routine and administrative information.
During the month of March, when the first Signalgate scandal broke, the focus initially focused on National Security Adviser Mike Waltz for mistakenly adding Goldberg to the chat. Behind closed doors, Pentagon officials also focused on Hegseth's actions, which had already raised eyebrows for other serious but less high-profile errors. Among them, statements in February about the Ukraine war negotiations in Brussels that he had to backtrack on—he assumed Ukraine would not join NATO or regain its pre-Russian borders—and a failed attempt to send thousands of detained migrants to the Guantanamo Bay military base.
It was the Secretary of Defense who shared highly sensitive information through an easily hackable commercial chat. The White House had already attempted to downplay the matter by denying that it was confidential information, although, as the outlet revealed, it involved critical data that, in the wrong hands, could have jeopardized the lives of the soldiers carrying out the operation and its success.
At the time, government officials and members of the Pentagon began to internally express doubts about Hegseth's role at the helm of Defense. The Signalgate scandal further fueled these doubts. In the wake of the revelation about the original Signal chat, there have already been firings, but neither Waltz nor Hegseth have been affected.
Among those fired are Brian Walsh, director of intelligence and former senior adviser on the Senate Intelligence Committee to Marco Rubio, now Secretary of State; Thomas Boodry, senior director of legislative affairs, who previously served as Waltz's legislative director in Congress; and David Feith, senior director for technology and national security, who worked at the State Department during the first Trump administration.