Secretary to the Ministry of Defense, Pete Hegseth shared details on an imminent attack on the Houthis in Yemen in March in a second group group using the messaging application signal which included his wife, his brother and his personal lawyer, two sources familiar with the content of the cat told ABC News.
These details shared in the second cat included the flight schedules for the F / A-18 Hornets involved in the attack awaiting Houthi positions, according to the officials. The New York Times was the first to report HegSeth’s sharing of details in a second group of signals.
The sharing of details would have taken place at the same time at the same time in mid-March when the main members of the national national security council of President Donald Trump, including Hegseth, inadvertently shared details on the missile strike on March 15 in Yemen with the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic.
Defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, is organizing a arrival ceremony for the Minister of Defense of Salvador, René Merino Monroy in Pentagon in Washington, on April 16, 2025.
Ken Cedeno / Reuters
Much of the same content was shared in the second encrypted cat with family members and others – a discussion group that Hegseth had created on his personal phone during his confirmation process, the two officials said in ABC News.
Hegseth’s wife Jennifer Hegseth does not work for the Ministry of Defense.
His brother, Phil Hegseth, works as main advisor to the Department of Homeland Security and is detailed at the Ministry of Defense. Tim Parlatore, HegSeth’s personal lawyer, works at the Pentagon as a reservist of the navy assigned to the HegSeth office.
Sean Parnell, chief spokesperson for the Pentagon, responded to reports of the second conversation in a declaration on X on Sunday evening by saying in part: “Another day, another old story – in the test of the dead. The hateful media of Trump continue to be obsessed with the destruction of anyone who was committed to the order of President Trump.”
The declaration continued: “There was no classified information in any signal cat, no matter how many ways they try to write history. What is true is that the office of the defense secretary continues to become stronger and more effective in the execution of the agenda of President Trump.”
Sources have confirmed with ABC News that the second known signal cat was originally created to discuss planning and administrative information.
The independent Inspector General of the Pentagon assesses the use by HegSeth of the signal application “to determine to what extent the Secretary of Defense and the DOD staff complied with the DOD policies and procedures” to lead official affairs, said the acting inspector general Steven Stebbins in a notification letter to Hegseth.
The Trump administration has repeatedly refuted the idea that any classified information was shared in the first known discussion thread; However, several former US officials have argued that sharing this information on unprecedented channels could at least troops abroad.
Its use to disclose sensitive military operations can complicate current surveys on potential leaks involving the first known group cat, which included the best aid and other members of the Pete Hegseth team – of which at least three have since been dismissed compared to the survey.
These officials – Dan Caldwell, Colin Carroll and Darin Selnick – have since spoken against what they are saying to be foundation against them.
“At the moment, we have still not been told exactly for which we have been the subject of an investigation, if there is always an active investigation, or if there was even a real investigation into the” leaks “to start,” they said in a joint press release on X on April 19.
John Ulyot, the former spokesperson for the Pentagon, published an opinion article in Politico on Sunday where he described “a month of total chaos in the Pentagon”.
“According to leaks of operational plans sensitive to mass layoffs, the dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president-which deserves better in senior direction,” he wrote.
“Hegseth now presides over a strange and confusing purge which left him without his two closest advisers of more than a decade – Caldwell and Selnick – and without chiefs of staff for him and his assistant,” wrote Ulyot.
“Even stronger donors of the secretary like me must admit: the last month was a full crisis in the Pentagon-and this becomes a real problem for the administration,” he added.
“President Donald Trump has a solid record to keep his senior officials to report,” said Ulyot. “Given this, it is difficult to see the defense secretary Pete Hegseth stay in his role longer.”
Ulyot left the Pentagon at the end of last week after being sidelined after defending controversial the deletion of information from Jackie Robinson from a DOD website.
He said earlier this week that he had left the Pentagon on his own, while a senior defense official told ABC News that Ulyot had been invited to resign.
