Another Shocking Leak Reveals Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Involvement in War Plan Group Chat

Pete Hegseth faces new allegations of sharing information about a US military operation in a Signal group chat involving his wife, brother, and personal lawyer.

The chat reportedly discussed a March strike on Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis, marking one of Hegseth’s early actions in his role. The New York Times first reported on this incident, which was later confirmed by the Associated Press.

It raises more questions about his use of an unclassified messaging system to share highly sensitive security details. 

The chat, labeled ‘Defense Team Huddle,’ included 13 participants and took place on the platform Signal. It’s essential to note that Signal is a commercial app and is not sanctioned for discussing sensitive or classified national defense matters.

The information shared ‘included the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen,’ the newspaper reported.

The outlet said that unlike the accidental leak where journalist Jeffrey Goldberg was mistakenly included in the group, this group chat was created by Hegseth.

Hegseth’s wife Jennifer, a former producer at the Defense Secretary’s ex-employer Fox News, is not an employee of the Defense Department. 

His brother Phil and attorney Tim Parlatore do have jobs at the Pentagon but it is not clear if they are on a need-to-know basis regarding attacks. Phil Hegseth is a Department of Homeland Security liaison and senior adviser. 

Both Phil and Jennifer have been traveling with the Defense Secretary and attending high-level meetings.

‘The truth is that there is an informal group chat that started before confirmation of his closest advisers,’ a U.S. official told The New York Times. ‘Nothing classified was ever discussed on that chat.’ 

In a statement to DailyMail.com, the White House dismissed the story and put the blame on the recently fired staffers.  

‘No matter how many times the legacy media tries to resurrect the same non-story, they can’t change the fact that no classified information was shared,’ Anna Kelly said. 

‘Recently-fired ‘leakers’ are continuing to misrepresent the truth to soothe their shattered egos and undermine the President’s agenda, but the administration will continue to hold them accountable.’ 

DailyMail.com has reached out to the Defense Department and Parlatore for comment. 

The story came out following a week after three top staffers under Hegseth at the Pentagon were forced to resign amid a probe into leaks at the Department of Defense. 

Four sources familiar with the message group, said that second chat included details of the schedule of the air strikes. 

Hegseth allegedly shared the same details of the attack that were revealed last month by The Atlantic magazine after its editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, was included in a separate chat on the Signal app by mistake, in an embarrassing incident involving all of President Donald Trump’s most senior national security officials. 

Goldberg revealed in a March story that a ‘Michael Waltz’ had added him to a group chat on the encrypted app Signal, where top White House officials discussed plans for attacking the Iranian-backed Houthis earlier this month. 

The initial group chat included a number of Cabinet members and came to light because Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was accidentally added to the group. 

Waltz started the conversation on Signal, an encrypted messaging app, that included users identified 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. 

‘The statements by Hegseth, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, and Trump – combined with the assertions made by numerous administration officials that we are lying about the content of the Signal texts – have led us to believe that people should see the texts in order to reach their own conclusions,’ wrote Goldberg and The Atlantic’s Shane Harris. 

‘There is a clear public interest in disclosing the sort of information that Trump advisers included in non-secure communications channels, especially because senior administration figures are attempting to downplay the significance of the messages that were shared,’ the journalists added. 

Revelations of another use of Signal for classified information come as one of Hegseth’s leading advisers, Dan Caldwell, was escorted from the Pentagon last week after being identified during an investigation into leaks at the Department of Defense.

Following Caldwell’s departure, less senior officials Darin Selnick, who recently became Hegseth’s deputy chief of staff, and Colin Carroll, who was chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg, were put on administrative leave, officials said.

The Trump administration has aggressively pursued leaks, an effort that has been enthusiastically embraced by Hegseth at the Pentagon.

The initial leak investigation at the Pentagon began on March 21 when Hegseth’s chief of staff Joe Kasper – who is also rumored to be on the outs – ordered the probe.

The probe included military operational plans for the Panama canal, a second carrier headed to the Red Sea, the pausing the collection of intelligence to Ukraine, and the leak that Elon Musk’s would meet with Hegseth about the U.S. war plans for China, an official told Politico.

Kasper said the probe would examine ‘recent unauthorized disclosures of national security information’ and said polygraphs would be used.

‘The use of polygraphs in the execution of this investigation will be in accordance with applicable law and policy,’ he wrote. ‘This investigation will commence immediately and culminate in a report to the Secretary of Defense.’ 

He noted that ‘information identifying a party responsible for an unauthorized disclosure’ would be referred for criminal prosecution.’

Kasper ordered the probe one day after the New York Times reported the Pentagon set up a briefing with Elon Musk on a potential war with China.

Caldwell played a critical role as an adviser to Hegseth. 

He was the staff member designated as Hegseth’s point person in the Signal messaging chat that top Trump administration national security officials, including the defense secretary, used to convey plans for a military strike against Houthi militants in Yemen.

Caldwell and Hegseth have a longtime friendship, going back to Hegseth’s time as the head of Concerned Veterans for America, a nonprofit. Caldwell worked at CVA beginning in 2013 as policy director and later as executive director. 

Additionally, Caldwell was by Hegseth’s side on Capitol Hill as the former Fox News host fought to keep his nomination alive during questions about his treatment of women. 

Selnick also performed the duties of the under secretary of Defense for personnel and readiness. He served in the White House and the Department of Veterans Affairs in the first Trump administration. 

And he also has ties to Concerned Veterans for America, where he served as a senior adviser. 

All three suspended aides are close in age and share the same isolationist view of foreign policy. That view is also shared by Vice President J.D. Vance and Don Trump Jr., the president’s oldest son.

Caldwell, once one of U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s most senior advisors, issued a joint statement on Saturday along with two other Pentagon officials casting doubt on an internal leak investigation that led to their ouster this week.

‘We are incredibly disappointed by the manner in which our service at the Department of Defense ended,’ Caldwell posted on X. 

‘Unnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door.’

Caldwell and the others added: ‘We still have not been told what exactly we were investigated for, if there is still an active investigation, or if there was even a real investigation of ‘leaks’ to begin with.’

The comments were the first by Caldwell since it was first disclosed that he was escorted out of the Pentagon building on Tuesday. 

Former Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot also announced he was resigning last week, unrelated to the leaks. The Pentagon said, however, that Ullyot was asked to resign.