Hegseth ‘shared Houthi strike details from CentCom secure site’

Details about US strikes in Yemen the Defence Secretary shared on two Signal chats came from US Central Command through a secure system designed for sending classified information.

Pete Hegseth on the South Lawn of the White House. Picture: AP/Alex Brandon

Details about US strikes on the rebel Houthis in Yemen that US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth shared on two Signal chats came from US Central Command through a secure, government system designed for sending classified information, the New York Times reports.

Mr Hegseth shared the details of the strike on a group chat with other White House officials and a second chat with friends and colleagues including his wife, brother and lawyer.

OnTuesday (local time), Mr Hegseth lashed out at former aides he called leakers during a Fox News interview, amid deepening turmoil at the Pentagon and controversy over his use of the group chats to share sensitive military information.

“Those folks who are leaking, who have been pushed out of the building, are now attempting to leak and sabotage the president’s agenda,” Hegseth said. “They’ve come after me from day one.”

Hegseth, a former Fox News host, is under investigation by the Pentagon’s inspector general over two group chats in the Signal messaging app — one with senior officials that inadvertently included a journalist, and another that included his wife, brother and personal attorney.

Hegseth denied again on Tuesday that he had shared classified information or war plans, characterising the chat that included his family as “informal, unclassified coordinations for media co-ordination and other things.”

A wave of firings and departures has left his front office without a chief of staff, deputy chief of staff or senior adviser. After resigning last week, former Pentagon chief spokesman John Ullyot spoke out about what he called a near collapse in the department’s senior ranks. He said a “strange and baffling purge” was becoming a distraction for the Trump administration.

Another fired adviser, Dan Caldwell, on Monday denied being the source of the leaks and alleged the investigation had been “weaponized” against the fired employees. “The entire Department of Defense cannot continue to be consumed by chaos,” he told Tucker Carlson in an interview.

Hegseth on Tuesday said the people responsible could be prosecuted by the Justice Department. “Once a leaker, always a leaker,” he said.

President Trump said on Monday that he stood by Hegseth, saying he was doing “a great job” and calling the disclosures of the second Signal chat “just fake news,” attributing the controversy to internal resistance to Hegseth’s agenda.

Some Republican lawmakers want the president to reconsider.

“If it was me, I’d fire him,” Rep. Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. “He should know better than to share operational details of imminent combat strikes on an unclassified application. A second lieutenant would have his career ended over doing this.”

Wall Street Journal