New York Times: U.S. Secretary of Defense Shared Sensitive Information on Houthi Strikes with His Wife

Yemen Monitor / New York / Agencies:

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shared detailed information about upcoming strikes on the Houthis in Yemen on March 15 in a private group chat on Signal that included his wife, brother, and personal attorney, according to four individuals familiar with the conversation.

Some of those individuals stated that the information Hegseth shared in the Signal chat included the flight schedules of F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen—essentially the same attack plans he had shared in a separate Signal conversation that same day, which mistakenly included the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine.

Mr. Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer, a former Fox News producer, is not an employee of the Department of Defense, yet has traveled abroad with him and has faced criticism for accompanying her husband to sensitive meetings with foreign leaders.

Mr. Hegseth’s brother and Tim Parlatore—who continues to serve as his personal attorney—both work at the Pentagon, but it remains unclear why either of them would need access to information about the military strikes targeting the Houthis in Yemen.

The existence of a previously unreported second Signal chat in which the U.S. Secretary of Defense shared highly sensitive military information is the latest in a series of developments that have brought his leadership and decision-making under scrutiny.

The strikes in Yemen, intended to punish Houthi fighters for attacking international shipping vessels transiting the Red Sea, were among the first major military actions under Mr. Hegseth’s tenure.