Hegset shared classified data about US attacks on Houthis with his wife and brother

According to sources, the information Hegset shared in the Signal chat included flight schedules for F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets targeting the Houthis in Yemen.

These are essentially the same attack plans he shared in another Signal chat the same day, in which an editor from The Atlantic mistakenly participated.

Hegseth's wife, Jennifer, a former Fox News producer, is not a Defense Department employee, but she has traveled abroad with him and has faced criticism for accompanying her husband to sensitive meetings with foreign leaders.

Hegseth's brother Phil and Tim Parlatore, who continues to serve as his personal attorney, work at the Pentagon, but it is unclear why they would need to know about upcoming military strikes targeting the Houthis in Yemen.

Unlike the chat room that mistakenly included the Atlantic journalist, this one was created by Hegseth and included his wife and about a dozen other people from his personal and professional circle in January, before he was confirmed as defense secretary.

Hegseth shared information about the Yemen strikes in the "Defense Team Huddle" chat room around the same time he was posting the same details in another Signal chat room that included senior U.S. officials and The Atlantic, people familiar with Hegseth's chat room said.

The chat also included two of Hegset's senior advisers — Dan Caldwell and Darin Selnick — who were accused of leaking unauthorized information and fired last week.

In addition to the Signal chat controversy, the Hegsett office has been rocked by the sudden dismissals of Caldwell, Selnick and Colin Carroll, all top advisers to the defense secretary, who were forced out of the Pentagon last week after allegations of leaking classified information.

After The Atlantic reported on the first Signal chat, Hegseth and other senior administration officials repeatedly denied that the participants exchanged any classified information.

"No one sent any text messages with war plans, and that's all I can say about that," Hegseth told reporters. At a Senate hearing, Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, reiterated Hegseth's assertion that no classified information was passed.

However, other former senior Defense Department officials said that the texts describing the launch time and type of aircraft used before the strike were classified information whose leakage to the enemy could endanger the lives of the pilots.

US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Sean Parnell declared this New York Times publication "fake."

The Trump-hating media continues its obsessive effort to destroy anyone who supports President Trump’s agenda. This time, the New York Times — and all the other fake news outlets that repeat their garbage — are enthusiastically accepting complaints from disgruntled former employees as the sole source for their article.

According to him, none of the described Signal chats contained classified information.