Trump continues to support Pete Hegseth after the Pentagon chief sent his wife and brother secrets about US attack in Yemen
The information, distributed by Pete Hegseth on a discussion group on the Signal application, targeted the flight hours for the F/A-8 Hornet airplanes that target the Houthi rebels in Yemen-the same attack plans and another chat, on the same day, which mistakenly included the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic and New York Times.
President Donald Trump supports American Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, the White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said on Monday.
“I talked to him about this this morning and supports him firmly,” she said.
The statement came after the New York Times revealed that the head of the Pentagon shared details about a Marchi rebellion in Yemen in a Signal group that included his personal wife, brother and lawyer.
Speaking at Fox News Monday morning Leavitt said Hegseth is doing a “phenomenal job.”
“This is what happens when the whole Pentagon works against you and the monumental change you are trying to implement,” she said.
Hegseth also told President Trump on Monday. “We will continue to fight to the end,” Hegseth told the White House
Question marks
The disclosure raises several question marks on how Hegseth uses the commercial messaging application to share extremely sensitive security details, writes Reuters.
Moreover, she comes in a very delicate moment for him, with high-ranking officials removed from the Pentagon last week as part of an internal leaks investigation.
The information distributed by Pete Hegseth on Signal referred to the flight hours for the F/A -18 Hornet airplanes that target the Houthi rebels in Yemen. Essentially, they were the same attack plans that he had shared on another chat, the same day, and which mistakenly included the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, notes News.ro.
Pete Hegseth, the head of the Pentagon, sent his wife to his wife and brother's secret plans about the US attack on Yemen, through another Signal group
Hegseth's wife, Jennifer, former producer at Fox News, is not an employee of the Defense Department, but she traveled with him abroad and there were criticisms because she accompanied her husband to sensitive meetings with foreign leaders.
Hegseth's brother, Phil, and Tim, and continues to be his lawyer, both have Pentagon's jobs, but it is not clear why they should know about future military blows targeting the Houthi rebels.
The existence of a second group on the sign in which the head of the Pentagon shared extremely sensitive military information is the most recent in a series of events that have questioned his management and judgment in one of the most sensitive positions of the administration, notes NYT.
The head of the Pentagon made the group on the sign before the appointment in office
Unlike the group in which the journalist at The Atlantic was mistaken, this second chat group was created by Pete Hegseth. The group included his wife and another 12 people in his personal and professional circle and was created in January, before his confirmation as a secretary of defense, being called “Defense | Team Huddle” (defense | Huddle team).
Hegseth used his private phone, not the government, to access the Signal Group.
The fact that, after Hegseth's confirmation, his wife, brother and lawyer continued to be kept in this group group – none of them having any apparent reason to be informed about the details of a military operation while it was in progress – it will certainly raise other questions about the Pentagon's head of the Pentagon, The New York of the Security.
The Signal Group revealed by The Atlantic in March had been created by Mike Waltz, the national security counselor of President Trump, because the highest national security officials, such as the Vice -President, the director of the National Intelligence Services and Hegseth, can coordinate with them.
Waltz has assumed the responsibility for the mistake of Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, in the chat group. He had called him a “restricted group Houthi PC”, the PC initials referring to the presence of the members of the “Principal Committee” of the Administration, who meet to discuss the most sensitive and important national security issues.
Hegseth has created the group on the separate Signal, initially as a forum to discuss routine or planning administrative information, two of the familiar people said. They said Hegseth did not usually use the app to discuss sensitive military operations and did not include other office officials.
