Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used his personal phone to send information about U.S. military operations in Yemen to a 13-person Signal group chat, including his wife and his brother, two sources with knowledge of the matter confirmed to NBC News. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He did so after an aide had warned him to be careful not to share sensitive information on an unsecure communications system before the Yemen operation, the sources said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The development comes about a month after it became public that Hegseth shared details of strikes in Yemen in a separate Signal chat with top administration officials. The editor-in-chief of The Atlantic was mistakenly added to that chain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The New York Times<\/a> first reported the existence of the second Signal chat. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Times cited four unnamed sources. Some of them, the Times reported, said the information Hegseth sent in the second chat \u2014 such as the flight schedule of the FA-18 planes being used \u2014 appeared to be similar to information he had shared in the Signal chat reported by the editor of The Atlantic. One source confirmed that to NBC News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sean Parnell, the chief Defense Department spokesman, denied that Hegseth had shared classified information. \u201cThere was no classified information in any Signal chat,\u201d he said on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anna Kelly, a White House deputy press secretary, played down the significance of the second group chat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo matter how many times the legacy media tries to resurrect the same non-story, they can\u2019t change the fact that no classified information was shared,\u201d she said in a statement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Thirteen people were in the second Signal group chat, but no other Cabinet-level officials were included, the two sources said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Participants included Joe Kasper, Hegseth\u2019s chief of staff; Darin Selnick, his deputy chief of staff; Eric Geressy, a retired Army sergeant major and Hegseth adviser; Tim Parlatore, a legal adviser to Hegseth and a Navy commander<\/a> in the Judge Advocate General\u2019s Corps; Hegseth\u2019s brother, Phil, senior adviser to Hegseth for the Department of Homeland Security; and Hegseth\u2019s wife, Jennifer, according to the two sources. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In March, the\u00a0editor-in-chief of The Atlantic<\/a>, Jeffrey Goldberg, was mistakenly added to a Signal chat with multiple national security leaders, on which Hegseth shared operational plans for striking military targets in Yemen before they occurred. That chat is\u202fnow the subject of an investigation<\/a>\u202fby the Defense Department\u2019s inspector general.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n In both instances, Hegseth used his personal phone, rather than his official one, the two sources said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hegseth came under scrutiny last month after it was revealed that his wife, a former Fox News producer, attended sensitive Defense Department meetings<\/a> with British and NATO leaders. Jennifer Hegseth is not a Pentagon employee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hegseth\u2019s brother, Phil, is employed in the Pentagon as a Department of Homeland Security adviser to Hegseth\u2014 but it is not clear why he or Jennifer Hegseth would need to know or be privy to information about the military strikes in Yemen.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Defense Department has had heavy turnover in the past week. Two of Hegseth\u2019s top advisers, Dan Caldwell and Selnick, were escorted out<\/a> of the Pentagon early last week in connection with an investigation of allegations of a leak of sensitive information.\u202f <\/p>\n\n\n\n The official who announced the investigation into the supposed leak weeks ago, Hegseth\u2019s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, left his role at the Pentagon late last week, Politico reported<\/a>. And Colin Carroll, chief of staff to the deputy secretary of defense, was also forced out late last week. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Caldwell, Selnick and Carroll said in a joint social media statement<\/a> Saturday saying that did not know why they were being investigated, saying, \u201cUnnamed Pentagon officials have slandered our character with baseless attacks on our way out the door.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Democrats reacted quickly to Sunday\u2019s news. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., posted on X<\/a> that Hegseth \u201cmust be fired.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe details keep coming out,\u201d Schumer said. \u201cWe keep learning how Pete Hegseth put lives at risk. But Trump is still too weak to fire him.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said on X<\/a>: \u201cThe latest story about Pete Hegseth\u2019s carelessness with sensitive information is yet another alarming example in this administration\u2019s unbroken pattern of incompetence. He should resign.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sen Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., a military veteran, called Hegseth \u201ca threat to our national security\u201d in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEvery day he stays in his job is another day our troops\u2019 lives are endangered,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n