Defense Secretary Pete Hegses will speak at the Senate Armed Worship Committee Confirmation Hearing on January 14, 2025 (Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump said he is fully supportive of the Secretary of Defense on Monday, despite the New York Times reporting over the weekend that Pete Hegses shared details of the Yemen bombing campaign in a second group chat, this time with his wife and brother.
“Would you ask Houthis how much dysfunction is?” Trump said, referring to an Iran-backed terrorist organization operating in Yemen. “No one. Pete does a great job. Everyone is happy with him.”
New York Times Article has been published On Sunday, he detailed the second group chat on a signal from an encrypted commercial messaging app, and Heggs shared information about the US military plan.
Heggs, I asked On the White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday, he did not deny that he sent a message in another group chat about the latest New York Times report.
“Some leaks were fired, and all of a sudden there were a lot of hit pieces coming out of the same media that pitched the Russian hoax, and we didn’t reply to Pulitzer, we got Pulitzer to lie,” Hegses said. “When they lie, no one calls it. This is what the media does. They take an anonymous source from disgruntled former employees.
The New York Times report was the second in less than a month after Hegseth’s discussion of military operations on the app uncovered.
The person chatting was intended to constitute only high-level administrative staff. Article has been published Experience in late March.
The group chats included Vice President J.D. Vance, Hegses, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Director of National Intelligence Tarsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz. In that chat, Heggs I shared an accurate timeline We bombed the target of Hooty in Yemen.
Department of Defense Inspector’s Office The investigation has begun Earlier this month, we said, “To determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other DOD officials have adhered to DOD policies and procedures for using commercial messaging applications for official businesses. Additionally, we will verify compliance with classification and record-keeping requirements.”
The OIG investigation was conducted by Roger Wicker, R-Miss, chairman of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee. , and came after ranking member Dr. Jack Reed. I sent a letter Ask the proxy inspector to look into this issue with an independent watchdog agency.
While Trump and most Congressional Republicans continued to support Hegzes, Nebraska Republican Rep. Don Bacon raised concerns Monday about the operational security risks communicating about “perceived, safe applications” such as signals.
in Social Media In a post that hegseth or specifically did not name the reference signal, Bacon wrote, “administrators must assume that their phones are being closely monitored by China and Russia.”
“They are our top goals. Our enemies can put thousands of people just to monitor their phones and penetrate recognized and secure applications on non-secure phones,” Bacon writes. “I was an Iraqi colonel and as commander of Ramstein, I thought my cell phone was being monitored.”
