President Donald Trump “stands strongly behind Pete Hegseth”, the White House says, after reports that military attack details were shared in a group chat that included the US defence secretary’s wife, brother, and personal lawyer.
The controversy comes a month after a journalist was added to a Signal group chat in which US cabinet officials, including Hegseth, discussed plans to attack Houthi rebels in Yemen.
In the second Signal chat, Hegseth shared information about air strikes against Yemen, the BBC’s US news partner CBS confirmed, citing sources familiar with the messages.
While not denying the reports, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president still backs Hegseth.
Leavitt told Fox News on Monday that Hegseth “is doing phenomenal leading the Pentagon” and appeared to pin the latest reports on internal dissent.
“This is what happens when the entire Pentagon is working against you and working against the monumental change you are trying to implement,” she said.
When questioned by reporters on Monday, Hegseth claimed the media was “full of hoaxsters” who “try to slash and burn people” but did not directly respond to the story about the second Signal chat, which was initially reported by the New York Times.
In a statement to the newspaper, the White House said no classified information was shared.
The messages in the second chat, sent on 15 March, included flight schedules for American F/A-18 Hornets carrying out strikes on Houthi targets.
Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer, is a former Fox News producer and holds no official position within the Pentagon. Hegseth has previously been criticised for reportedly including his wife in meetings with foreign leaders.
His brother, Phil, and personal lawyer, Tim Parlatore, both hold positions at the Department of Defence. But it is not clear why any of the three would require advanced warnings of sensitive US strike plans.
Unlike the first Signal group, the second one – called “Defence | Team Huddle” – was created by Hegseth, according to the New York Times.
The existence of the earlier Signal group was revealed by Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of the Atlantic magazine, who was accidentally included in it by Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser.
Officials used the group to discuss information relating to upcoming strikes in Yemen. Goldberg left the original chat after the first attacks on 14 March, but the two group chats appeared to discuss the same military operation that took place over several weeks.
The White House has also denied that classified information was discussed in the first group, although critics of Hegseth – including former US defence officials – question that. They say discussing such information in Signal groups could jeopardise US personnel carrying out military operations.
Signal uses end-to-end encryption, meaning only the sender of the message and its recipients can view its contents.
This is considered a high level of security for a messaging app. But it offers no protection if someone’s phone is viewed by another person or falls into the wrong hands, or if the wrong person is added to a group chat.
Experts say this is why classified communications normally take place in secure, government-controlled locations rather than on officials’ private devices.
The existence of the second Signal group is the latest controversy surrounding the head of the Pentagon, who this year is controlling a budget of $892bn (£670bn).
Hegseth last week fired three top officials for an “unauthorised disclosure” – an accusation the officials said was “baseless”.
In a testy exchange outside the White House ahead of an annual Easter event, Hegseth appeared to attribute the latest story to the officials he fired.
“What a big surprise that a few leakers get fired and suddenly a bunch of hit pieces come out,” he said.
Hegseth denounced the reporters and said he had spoken to the president and that they were “on the same page all the way” before turning away from the cameras.
In an op-ed for Politico magazine published on Sunday, John Ullyot, a former top Pentagon spokesperson who resigned last week, wrote that the department was in “total chaos”.
He added: “The dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president, who deserves better from his senior leadership.”
Ullyot said it was not true that the three fired officials were leaking information and wrote: “Unfortunately, Hegseth’s team has developed a habit of spreading flat-out, easily debunked falsehoods anonymously about their colleagues on their way out the door.”
However, in a statement on X, Sean Parnell, current chief spokesman for the Pentagon, accused the “Trump-hating media” of “destroying anyone committed to President Trump’s agenda”.
He echoed the White House by saying that “there was no classified information in any Signal chat”.
Washington says its strikes in Yemen are punishment for Houthi attacks on cargo vessels transiting through the Red Sea, a critical waterway for international trade.
Since November 2023, the Houthis have targeted dozens of merchant vessels with missiles, drones and small boat attacks in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. They have sunk two vessels, seized a third, and killed four crew members.
The Houthis have said they are acting in support of the Palestinians in the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and have claimed – often falsely – that they are targeting ships only linked to Israel, the US or the UK.
US air strikes on an oil terminal in north-western Yemen this week killed at least 74 people and wounded 171 others, according to the Houthi-run health ministry. The Houthi-led government said the attack constituted a “war crime”.