Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth created another Signal messaging chat that included his wife and brother where he shared similar details of a March military airstrike against Yemen's Houthi militants that were sent in another chain with top Trump administration leaders. The New York Times on Sunday reported the second chat, and a person familiar with the contents and those who received the messages confirmed it to The Associated Press. That person, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said the unclassified chat included 13 people. The White House late Sunday dismissed the report as a "non-story," insisting that no classified information was shared.
The Atlantic has released the Signal chat among Trump senior national security officials. It shows that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth provided the exact times of warplane launches and when bombs would drop — before the men and women flying those attacks against Yemen's Houthis this month on behalf of the United States were airborne. The disclosure follows two intense days during which Trump's senior most Cabinet members of his intelligence and defense agencies have struggled to explain how details that current and former U.S. officials have said would have been classified wound up on an unclassified Signal chat. That chat included Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg.
By TARA COPP, AAMER MADHANI and ERIC TUCKER Associated Press
Top national security officials for President Donald Trump, including his defense secretary, texted war plans for upcoming military strikes in Yemen to a group chat in a secure messaging app that included the editor-in-chief for The Atlantic. This was reported by the magazine in a story posted online Monday. The National Security Council said the text chain "appears to be authentic." Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg said the material in the text chain "contained operational details of forthcoming strikes on Iran-backed Houthi-rebels in Yemen, including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing." Just two hours after Goldberg received the details of the attack on March 15, the U.S. began launching a series of airstrikes.
