US Defense Secretary Hegseth denies texting Yemen war plans

STORY: :: US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth denies texting war plans to a journalist from The Atlantic

JOURNALIST: "Your information about war plans against the Houthis in Yemen was shared with a journalist in The Atlantic and were those details are classified?"

:: March 24, 2025

:: Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii

:: Pete Hegseth, US Secretary of Defense

"So you're talking about a deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who's made a profession of peddling hoaxes time and time again, to include the I don't know, the hoaxes of 'Russia, Russia, Russia' or the 'fine people on both sides' hoax or 'suckers and losers' hoax. This is a guy who peddles in garbage It's what he does."

JOURNALIST: "Why were those details shared on Signal and how did you learn that a journalist was privy to the targets, the types of weapons used?"

HEGSETH: "I've heard that was characterized, nobody was texting war plans. And that's all I have to say about that. Thank you."

:: National Security Council spokesperson Brian Hughes said the chat group appeared to be authentic

Top Trump administration officials mistakenly disclosed war plans in a messaging group that included a journalist shortly before the United States attacked Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis, the White House said on Monday, following a first-hand account by The Atlantic.

The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg said in a report on Monday that he was unexpectedly invited on March 13 to an encrypted chat group on the Signal messaging app called the "Houthi PC small group."

Hours before U.S. President Donald Trump launched strikes against Yemen's Houthis on March 15, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted operational details about the plan in the messaging group, "including information about targets, weapons the U.S. would be deploying, and attack sequencing," Goldberg said.