The White House expressed its support on Monday to Defense secretary Pete Hegseth After the media, he shared sensitive military details in another signal chat chat, this time with his wife and brother.
Neither the White House nor Hegseth denied having shared such information in a second conversation, rather concentrating their answers on what they called the dissatisfied workers that theyblamed for having fled to the mediaand insist that notClassified informationhad been disclosed.
“This is just false news. They just talk about stories,” said Donald Trump to journalists. “I guess it looks like dissatisfied employees. You know, it has been put there to get rid of many bad people, and that’s what it does. So you don’t always have friends when you do this,” said Trump.
The posture of the administration was supposed to maintain the line against the democratic requests for the dismissal of Hegseth at a time when the Pentagon is engulfed in the disorders, including the Departments of several higher aids And an internal investigation on information leaks.
The White House has also tried to divert the attention of the implications of national security from the latest signal by leading it as the growth of an institutional power struggle between Hegseth and career labor. But part of theRecently deceased officialsThe administration seemed to be rejected as dissatisfied was part of HegSeth’s initial inner circle, brought when he took the post.
“This is what happens when the whole Pentagon works against you and works against the monumental change you are trying to implement,” said the White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in the remarks amplified by a Pentagon social media account.
The latest news added to questions about the Judgment of the chief of the besieged Pentagon, at the top of the disclosure last month of his participation in aCat signal with the best leaders in the Trump administrationIn what details on the military air strike against Yemen Houthi activists have been shared.
“Pete Hegseth must be dismissed,” said Senate Democrat, Chuck Schumer.
The latest reports on the use of HegSeth signal
The New York Times reported on Sunday that the information shared in a signal messaging conversation with the wife of Hegseth, brother and others were similar to what was communicated in the chain already disclosed with officials of the Trump administration.
A person familiar with the content and those who received the messages, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues, confirmed the second cat with the Associated Press. The person said he understood 13 people and had been nicknamed “the defense team”.
Officials of the White House first learned the second report of reports on Sunday, according to a familiar official with the question that spoke subject to anonymity to discuss internal conversations.
Hegseth, speaking to journalists while attending theWhite House Easter Easter Rolldid not approach the substance of allegations or the implications of national security they have raised but assaulted the media.
“They take anonymous sources of former dissatisfied employees, then they try to reduce and burn people and ruin their reputation,” said Hegseth. “Do not work with me. Because we change the Ministry of Defense, putting the Pentagon back in the hands of combatants. And the anonymous smear of former unhappy employees on Old News do not matter.”
Republican senator Tom Cotton, president of the Senate Intelligence Committee, brought a similar tone,Writing Sunday evening on x: “Secretary Hegseth is busy implementing President America’s first program by President Trump, while these leaks try to undermine them both.” Ashamed. “
The Trump administration’s response to signal use
The Trump administration had trouble in its public explanations on the use of the signal by senior officials, aCommercially available applicationNot authorized to be used to communicate sensitive or classified information on national defense.
The first cat, created by the national security advisor Mike Waltz, included a number of members of the cabinet andcame in light because Jeffrey GoldbergThe editor -in -chief of the Atlantic was added to the group.
The officials have insisted on the fact that the information shared on signal was not classified, although the content of this cat, that the Atlantic has published, shows that Hegseth listed weapons systems and a chronology for theattack on Houthis supported by Iranlast month.
Several current and former military officials say that launching times and the deadlines for lower ammunition are classified information and put these details on an unmarked channel could have put these pilots in danger.
The Trump administration has faced criticism forDo not actUntil now, against senior national security officials who have discussed the plans of the strike in Signal, and the last report has fueled additional calls to the eviction of Hegseth.
“Details continue to go out. We continue to learn how Pete Hegseth has put lives in danger. But Trump is still too weak to dismiss him,” said SchumerPublished Sunday on X.
The New York Times reported that the second cat group included HegSeth’s wife Jennifer, who is a former Fox News producer, and his brotherPhil Hegseth, who was hired at PentagonAs Department of Internal Security Liaison and Senior Advisor.
The Times said the second cat had the same hours of launch of the war plane as the first cat included.
The use of the HegSeth signal is underInvestigation by the interim inspector general of the Ministry of DefenseAt the request of the bipartite management of the Senate armed services committee. The senior democratic member, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, urged the guard dog on Sunday to also examine the second reported cat.
Larger Turmen inside the Pentagon
The Pentagon has confronted a wave of turbulence that extends beyond the signal. Defense authorities were examined by a meticulous examination on an apparently random and disjointedCampaign to purge online contentwho favored women and minorities, in some casesto blur to restore messagesAfter their moves were revealed.
During last week, five heads of the Hegseth’s inner circle left.
Last weekDan CaldwellHegseth aid; Colin Carroll, chief of staff of the Deputy Secretary of Defense Stephen Feinberg; and Darin Selnick, deputy chief of staff of Hegseth;were escorted from the PentagonWhile the department tracks down indoor information leaks.
While these three had initially been put on leave while waiting for the investigation, aCommon declaration shared by CaldwellOn X on Saturday said they “still had not been informed of what we were investigated, if there was always an active investigation, or if there was even a real investigation into” leaks “to start”.
Another close assistant of Hegseth, chief of staff Joe Kasper, also leaving, according to two officials. They didn’t say why.
Caldwell and Selnick had worked with the defense secretary during his time to lead the veterans concerned for America. Kasper was the one who sent a March note saying that the pentagon was investigating what he calledNational security information leaksAnd these staff from the Ministry of Defense could face polygraphs.
Former Pentagon spokesperson John Ulyot announced that he resigned last week, unrelated to leaks. The Pentagon said, however, that Ulyot had been invited to resign.
And on Monday, three American officials said that another staff member, Sean Parnell, temporarily moved from his work as Hegseth chief spokesperson and spend more time at the Hegseth Front Office.
Officials have all spoken on condition of anonymity to provide details on staff movements.
This story was initially presented on Fortune.com
