Hegseth admits to a second Signal group chat involving his wife

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, already at the heart of a controversy for leaking sensitive, classified information about an imminent military attack in Yemen in a Signal group featuring several members of the Trump administration, including Vice President JD Vance, as well as a journalist from The Atlantic added by mistake, is once again causing scandal.

New revelations from the New York Times indicate that he shared the same information with a second Signal group chat, this time made up of his wife, family members, lawyer and personal assistants.

These messages, which Pete Hegseth allegedly first received from General Michael Erik Kurilla, Commander of U.S. Central Command, via a secure U.S. government system, contained specific information about the strikes carried out in March against the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

According to NBC News, the Secretary of Defense ultimately transmitted this information from his personal phone to two group chats on Signal, and not just one as initially reported. This was despite a clear warning from one of his aides against sharing classified data via an unsecured communications system.

Former Fox & Friends Weekend host Pete Hegseth denied sharing classified information in these groups, while acknowledging the existence of a second Signal group chat.

He initially dismissed the accusations, saying that the media were rehashing old information from, in his view, ‘disgruntled’ former employees.

Hegseth, with Donald Trump’s support, continues to weather the controversy for the time being, despite calls for his resignation. Among them, Republican Representative Don Bacon, who called the existence of this second Signal group “totally unacceptable”.