The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegesh, shared details of a March military attack against the hutis backed by Iran in Yemen in another signal message chat that included his wife and brother, according to a report.
The New York Times first reported the revelation of a second signal chat sign that surrounds the military strike on Sunday. Those same attack plans had also been shared in another conversation with the main leaders of the Trump administration and only came to light last month because Jeffrey Goldberg, chief editor of the Atlantic, was added by error to the group.
The second chat had the same launch times of combat aircraft that were included in the first chat, operational details that, if they were shared before a strike, could have put the pilots in danger, they have said multiple previous and current officials.
Four people with knowledge of the second chat told the newspaper that Hegesh's wife, Jennifer, a former Fox News producer, his brother Phil and his personal lawyer, Tim Parlatore, were included in the chat.
NSA Mike Waltz is responsible for signaling chat leakage
The Secretary of Defense, Pete Heghseth, speaks during a meeting with the National Defense Minister of El Salvador, Rene Merino Monroy, in the Pentagon, on Wednesday, April 16, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)
Jennifer Hegseth is not an employee of the Department of Defense, although she has traveled with her husband abroad for meetings with foreign leaders. Phil Hegesh and Parlatore are used by the Pentagon. It is not clear why any of them would need to be informed of any time more military attacks.
The second chat included 13 people, a person familiar with the matter told Associated Press on anonymity. They also confirmed that the chat was called “defense.”
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell, dismissed the report as “another old story, the back of the dead.”
“The media that hate Trump are still obsessed with destroying anyone committed to President Trump's agenda,” said Parnell. “This time, the New York Times, and all the other false news that repeats their garbage, are taking with enthusiasm the complaints of former unhappy employees such as the only sources of their article.”
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Parnell said the Times sources were people farewell to the Pentagon last week who “seem to have a reason to sabotage the secretary and the president's agenda.”
Parnell said there was no information classified in any signal chat, an answer that Hegseth previously affirmed with respect to the first chat.
The White House on Sunday night dismissed the report as a “no history”, suggesting that the former discontent employees of the Pentagon were spreading false statements.
“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,” said Anna Kelly, deputy secretary of the White House. “The 'filters' recently continues to misrepresent the truth to calm their shattered egos and undermine the president's agenda, but the administration will continue to make them responsible.”
Pentagon power struggles
The former Pentagon spokesman, John Ullyot, who announced that he would resign last week not related to leaks, wrote an opinion article published in Politico on Sunday that detailed what he called “the month of hell” within the agency.
“President Donald Trump has a strong history of holding his senior officials. Since it is difficult to see that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth remain in his role for much longer,” Ulle
He wrote that “the building is in disorder under the leadership of Hegseth” after the Secretary of Defense “followed the horrible crisis communications councils of his new public affairs team” with respect to the first signal chat.
Ullyot wrote that Trump “deserves better of his superior leadership.”
The first chat, created by National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, included several cabinet members. The content of that chat, which the Atlantic published, shows that Hegseth listed the weapons systems and a timeline for the attack on the hutis backed by Iran in Yemen last month.
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The revelation of the second chat group brought new criticisms against Hegseth and the widest administration of President Donald Trump after he could not take measures against senior national security officials who discussed the plans for the military strike in signal.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
