Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared details of a March attack on Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis in a message group that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer, the New York Times reported on Sunday, raising more questions about his use of an unclassified messaging system to share highly-sensitive security details.
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.
The New York Times, citing four sources familiar with the message group, said that second chat included details of the schedule of the air strikes.
The White House said that no classified information was shared in Signal chats.
US President Donald Trump stands behind US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said on Monday, after reports that he shared details of a March attack on Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis in a message group that included his wife, brother, and personal lawyer.
The revelations of a second Signal chat raise more questions about Hegseth's use of an unclassified messaging system to share highly sensitive security details and come at a particularly delicate moment for him, with senior officials ousted from the Pentagon last week as part of an internal leak investigation.
Hegseth's wife Jennifer, a former Fox News producer, has also reportedly attended sensitive meetings with foreign military counterparts, the Wall Street Journal has separately reported.
Signal chats
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, a US official told Reuters.
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 Pentagon was not immediately available for comment.
Hegseth said on Monday he had spoken with Trump after the report.
"We will continue fighting all the way," Hegseth said at the White House, where he arrived for the annual Easter egg hunt.