Pete Hegseth was briefly relieved from the “Signalgate” scandal under the cover of tariff drama, but alas, it appears the Defense Secretary has some loose lips. The New York Times reported over the weekend that there was a second group chat in which Hegseth shared information on Yemen strikes with members of his own family.
The new administration has proven quite fond of Signal, an end-to-end encrypted messaging app that stores communications locally and is favored amongst journalists, dissidents, and others for its impenetrability to snooping (if you use it correctly). The federal government, however, discusses plans that put lives at risk, and has its own record-keeping mandates meant to keep officials in power accountable for their actions. Government employees are not supposed to use Signal for this reason, except in limited cases. Its increased use by government officials has made it a new target for hackers.
The new report alleges that Hegseth created the new chat, called “Defense | Team Huddle,” on his personal phone and used it to share information on flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthis in Yemen. The primary purpose of the chat was as a forum to discuss routine or administrative scheduling information, but it veered into discussing more sensitive information, as one does when talking about life amongst close confidants. U.S. officials have repeatedly denied that any classified information was shared—an assertion that has drawn intense skepticism from national defense experts.
Last week, the Defense Department fired two senior advisers for leaking, both of whom were in Hegseth’s huddle group. When you hire people who mock the very idea of standards or integrity, it should not be surprising that this is what you get.
On Sunday, the White House again downplayed the story. “No matter how many times the legacy media tries to resurrect the same nonstory, they can’t change the fact that no classified information was shared,” Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson, told the Times.
Whether Hegseth’s proclivity for using Signal is incompetence or more sinister in nature is hard to say. But at this point, it would not be surprising to hear that the Defense Secretary shared operational details of the Yemen attack with his UPS driver. We feel a little insulted that he left us out.
Cloak-and-dagger communications are prolific amongst the new administration, with Elon Musk’s DOGE swooping into agencies across the government and taking broad actions while simultaneously covering up their tracks. There is fear that DOGE’s reckless collection of data—like addresses and tax filings—for a Palantir-backed API could be used to create a new police state, among other things identifying migrants critical of the administration for deportation. Normally, accountability is what prevents officials from taking brazen action, but not when they use anonymous accounts and wipe logs on their way out. If Elon Musk were getting access to information on his enemies, how would one even know?
And another question left open: How many other group chats are there that we do not know about yet? Unfortunately, we are not living under an administration that cares much about this.
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