New Scandal: US War Secretary Shared Detailed Military Plans in 2nd Signal Chat

By Staff, Agencies

In a new scandal, US War Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed plans about a military operation against Yemen on a second Signal group chat, this one on his personal phone and including his wife, lawyer and brother.

The chat was set up during Hegseth’s tumultuous confirmation hearing process as a way for his closest allies to strategize, two of the people familiar with the matter said. But Hegseth continued using the chat, which had more than a dozen people in it, to communicate after he was confirmed, the people said.

The revelation comes as some of Hegseth’s closest advisers have begun sounding the alarm about the secretary’s judgment, including his former press secretary, John Ullyot, and three former senior officials Hegseth fired last week.

“It’s been a month of total chaos at the Pentagon. From leaks of sensitive operational plans to mass firings, the dysfunction is now a major distraction for the president — who deserves better from his senior leadership,” Ullyot said in a statement obtained by CNN.

The second Signal chat is in addition to the one Hegseth used to communicate with Cabinet officials last month about military plans. That chat is under investigation by the War Department’s acting inspector general.

Similar to the first Signal chat, which was revealed publicly by The Atlantic after its editor was mistakenly included by national security adviser Mike Waltz, the military plans Hegseth shared in the second chat were about strikes against Yemen.

A series of leaks about military planning for the Panama Canal and the Middle East, about a possible consolidation of the combatant commands, and about a classified China briefing for Elon Musk at the Pentagon had deeply rattled Hegseth by mid-March, sources told CNN. So, he and Kasper launched a leak probe, complete with polygraph tests.