Unfinished information leak in the Trump administration; Will Hegsett be fired?
According to the Week, Pete Hegsett, the defense secretary of US President Donald Trump, is the second senior US official, after Mike Waltz, his national security adviser, to share classified information about Washington’s military operation against Yemen in a messenger with unrelated people; an issue that could anger Trump and put the defense secretary at risk of being fired.
The Week wrote that Hegsett shared operational details in a separate channel on the Signal messenger that “unintentionally” included a senior American journalist! It was later discovered that the Trump defense secretary shared information and operational details in another group on the same messenger, in which his wife Jennifer Ratchett, Tim Parlator, a lawyer, and his brother Phil, as well as a former Fox News producer, were members!
Although Hegsett’s wife does not hold a position in the Department of Defense, both Phil and Parlator hold positions in the Pentagon. But they are also said to be in no position to have access to operational details. It is unclear why the people in the second group chat had security clearance!
This scandal comes as the US Department of Defense is facing an investigation into a leak that led to the suspension of three of Hegsett’s top advisers. Also, a few weeks ago, the Atlantic reported that Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Walters, had “accidentally” added the magazine’s editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, to a Signal channel where classified information related to the military strike on Sanaa was shared!
According to Wick, the second group of signals intelligence and messages was sent via the Hegsett Gap on March 15 and included details about the timing of F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet flights with a mission to attack Houthi (Yemeni Ansarullah) targets.