Hegseth Shared Yemen Attack Details in Another Signal Chat from Unsecure Phone with Wife and Brother

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News emerged that on 15 March 2025, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shared details of a military strike in Yemen not only in the Signal chat that inadvertently included a journalist, but also through his unsecure personal phone in another Signal chat that included his wife and brother.

The chat was called Defense | Team Huddle. It included about a dozen people from his personal circle. He posted in this chat and the previously revealed chat over the same timespan. Although aides had been trying to get him to use his secure government phone for sensitive communications, he continued to use his personal phone which is not as secure.

In both this chat and the one that surfaced earlier in which editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic magazine was included, Hegseth posted military attack details provided to him through a properly secured system by Army General Michael Erik Kurilla, who leads Central Command for operations in the Middle East. This means Hegseth intentionally transferred information from a secure system to his unsecured personal phone in order to share it with other people.

Hegseth’s brother Phil also works for the Department of Defense, but his wife Jennifer Rauchet is a former Fox News producer. Hegseth’s lawyer was also in the chat. It is unclear what he said in the chat and why he chose to discuss a military strike with them.

Although Donald Trump publicly supported Hegseth after this came to light, soon word began to circulate that the White House was beginning to look for someone to replace Hegseth.

Within hours after being appointed, he publicly violated military protocol by revealing details of a military helicopter crew involved in a crash before their families had been notified. His public remarks have raised alarm or anger more than once at home and abroad. Last week he lost three of his topmost aides in a single day. Multiple news outlets have reported that he has brought chaos to the Pentagon and it is worsening.

Several lawmakers in Congress, including at least one key Republican, began calling for Hegseth to resign. Trump insisted on having him as Secretary of Defense but perhaps he is on the way out.

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