Pete Hegseth vehemently refuted the accusation that he was sharing military strategies through a group chat discussing military actions in Yemen, where a journalist had been mistakenly added.
Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor in chief of The Atlantic, made the jaw-dropping revelation on Monday.
The conversation was initiated by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz on Signal, a secure messaging platform, and included participants such as Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
A CIA representative, Trump adviser Stephen Miller and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles were also listed in the group.
Goldberg, a longtime Washington D.C. journalist, found himself added to the conversation.
Following his first public appearance after the incident and his flight to Hawaii, Hegseth strongly criticized Goldberg, akin to how President Donald Trump often denounced the publication.
‘So you are talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who has made a profession of peddling hoaxes, time and time again.’
He cited various stories The Atlantic has run on Trump’s alleged connections to Russia, his ‘very fine people’ comments after the Charlottesville riots being taken out of context and the alleged ‘suckers and losers’ comments on soldiers killed in war.
‘This is a guy who peddles in garbage. This is what he does,’ Hegseth added.
He praised American troops fighting the Houthis in Yemen and criticized the Biden administration for their own performance.
A reporter asked Hegseth: ‘Why were those details shared on signal?’
Hegseth replied: ‘I’ve heard how it was characterized. Nobody was texting war plans and that’s all I have to say about that.’
When reached for comment, a spokesman for the Pentagon told DailyMail.com: ‘We do not have anything to offer beyond the Secretary’s remarks.’
DailyMail.com has reached out to the White House and the National Security Agency for comment.
The National Security Council confirmed the chat that included Goldberg appeared to be authentic.
Trump said he didn’t know ‘anything’ about an extraordinary security breach where a magazine editor was inadvertently included on a group chat with his entire security team strategizing about an upcoming military attack.
‘I don’t know anything about it,’ Trump said when asked about it at a White House event with Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry nearly three hours after the story posted, sending shockwaves through the security establishment.
Then Trump, like Hegseth, quickly pivoted to attacking the magazine.
‘I’m not a big fan of the Atlantic, to me it’s a magazine that is going out of business. I think it’s not much of a magazine,’ Trump said of the publication, which was founded in 1857.
Some of the material was so sensitive that the magazine decided not to publish it, but the article from the group chat did feature Vice President JD Vance raising arguments against the decision to strike the targets.
‘Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, had texted me the war plan at 11:44 a.m.’ – about two hours before it happened on March 15th, wrote Goldberg.
The Signal app is unclassified, although it is often used in the private sector as a form of more secure communications. Usually internal conversations about a looming military operation must be held using secure facilities.
The bizarre saga began when Goldberg got a request to connect on Signal from Michael Waltz, the name of the White House national security advisor.
‘I accepted the connection request, hoping that this was the actual national security adviser, and that he wanted to chat about Ukraine, or Iran, or some other important matter,’ Goldberg wrote.
‘Two days later—Thursday—at 4:28 p.m., I received a notice that I was to be included in a Signal chat group. It was called the “Houthi PC small group.”’ Some of the most revelatory information came from Trump’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, 44, a former Fox News host.
So began Goldberg’s inclusion in the ultra high level chat. Some of the contents he would only summarize. What he would say, ‘to illustrate the shocking recklessness of this Signal conversation, is that the Hegseth post contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing.’
When it was over, according to Goldberg, Waltz called the operation an ‘amazing job’ and Director fo National Intelligence John Ratcliff caleld it ‘a good start.’
It was unclear Monday if there would be any fallout from the disclosure. As a candidate Donald Trump tore into Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server when she was Secretary of State.
‘If true, this story represents one of the most egregious failures of operational security and common sense I have ever seen,’ said Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee.
‘Military operations need to be handled with utmost discretion, using approved, secure lines of communication, because American lives are on the line. The carelessness shown by President Trump’s cabinet is stunning and dangerous. I will be seeking answers from the Administration immediately.’
