Hegseth pulled airstrike info from secure military channel for Signal
posts
[April 23, 2025]
By TARA COPP
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is defending himself
against a second assertion that he shared classified material through an
unapproved and unsecured network — this time taking airstrike
information from a military communications channel and sharing it in a
chat with his wife, his brother and others.
Hegseth pulled the information he posted in the Signal chat from a
secure communications channel used by U.S. Central Command. NBC News
first reported that the launch times and bomb drop times of U.S.
warplanes about to strike Houthi targets in Yemen — details multiple
officials have said are highly classified — came from the secure
channel.
A person familiar with the chat confirmed that to The Associated Press.
The information was identical to the sensitive details of the Yemen
operations shared in the first Signal chat, the person said, speaking on
condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal for speaking to the
press.
That initial leaked chat included President Donald Trump's top national
security officials. It accidentally included the editor of The Atlantic
and has caused an investigation by the inspector general in the Defense
Department.
What Hegseth has said about the second chat
Hegseth has not directly acknowledged that he set up the second chat,
which had more than a dozen people on it, including his wife, his lawyer
and his brother Phil Hegseth, who was hired as a senior liaison to the
Pentagon for the Department of Homeland Security. Instead, the secretary
blamed the disclosure of the second Signal chat on leaks from
disgruntled former staff.
Hegseth has aggressively denied that the information he posted was
classified. Regardless of that, Signal is a commercially available app
that is encrypted but is not a government network and not authorized to
carry classified information.
“I said repeatedly, nobody is texting war plans,” Hegseth told Fox News
on Tuesday. “I look at war plans every day. What was shared over Signal
then and now, however you characterize it, was informal, unclassified
coordinations, for media coordinations and other things. That’s what
I’ve said from the beginning.”
Former defense secretary calls it a ‘serious’ breach
Based on the specificity of the launch times, that information would
have been classified, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the AP
in a phone interview.
“It is unheard of to have a secretary of defense committing these kind
of serious security breaches," said Panetta, who served during the Obama
administration, and who also was director of the Central Intelligence
Agency during Obama's term. ”Developing attack plans for defensive
reasons is without question the most classified information you can
have."
The news comes as Hegseth has shaken up much of his inner circle. He is
said to have become increasingly isolated and suspicious about whom he
can trust, and is relying on an increasingly smaller and smaller circle
of people.
[to top of second column]
|
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks on the South Lawn of the White
House before President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump
participate in the White House Easter Egg Roll Monday, April 21,
2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
In the past week, Hegseth has fired or transferred six men in his inner
circle, including his aide Dan Caldwell; his deputy chief of staff,
Darin Selnick; and the chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary
Stephen Feinberg, Colin Carroll.
Those three were escorted out of the Pentagon as the department hunts
down leaks of inside information, and in his “Fox and Friends” interview
Tuesday, an agitated Hegseth accused those staff — whom he had worked
with and known for years — of “attempting to leak and sabotage” the
administration.
On Sunday, former Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot said there was a “near
collapse in the Pentagon’s top ranks." In an op-ed published in
Politico, he said that “Hegseth is now presiding over a strange and
baffling purge that will leave him without his two closest advisers of
over a decade — Caldwell and Selnick — and without chiefs of staff for
him and his deputy.”
Impact on the force
The disarray isn’t just within the civilian ranks. Multiple senior
military officers have been fired by Hegseth over the past three months,
including the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. CQ
Brown Jr. Multiple current military officers in the Pentagon have
described a loss of morale caused by the dysfunction and uncertainty —
and said for many, they are just trying to keep their heads down.
One Army officer said the uncertainty created by Hegseth is one of the
reasons he's leaving the military. After a 25-year career, he said he's
angry at what Hegseth is doing and the impact it is having on his
family. He said he's not the only one, and that the defense civilians
who process retirement paperwork are overwhelmed due to the increase in
long-serving personnel now deciding to leave military service.
One former service secretary who spoke to the AP on condition of
anonymity said they had never seen the building like this. So did
Panetta, who said in his talks with officers still serving, there was
deep concern for the long-term effects of all the upheaval. Hegseth “is
almost consumed by crises of his own making,” Panetta said. “And they
are taking up all his time and attention.”
Hegseth confirmed Tuesday that chief of staff Joe Kasper would be
transitioning to a new position. Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell
is also temporarily shifting to a more direct support role for Hegseth,
and former Pentagon spokesman John Ullyot announced he was resigning
last week, unrelated to the leaks. The Pentagon said, however, that
Ullyot was asked to resign.
All contents © copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved |
