The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegesh, used a second signal talk to discuss the air attacks last month in Yemen with his wife, brother and personal lawyer, sources told ABC News on Sunday.
In response, Senator Tammy Duckworth from Illinois asked him to “resign in disgrace” in a statement on Sunday.
“How many times does Pete Hegseth need to filter the classified intelligence before Donald Trump and Republicans understand that not only a liar is affirmed, it is a threat to our national security?” Duckworth said.
The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegesh, meets with El Salvador Defense Minister, Rene Merino Monroy, in the Pentagon in Washington, on April 16, 2025.
Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
Senator Jack Reed from Rhode Island, the main Democrat of the Senate Armed Services Committee, also issued a statement on Sunday, saying that he has “serious concerns about the capacity of Secretary Hegseth to maintain the confidence of the members of the US service and the commander in chief.”
Reed asked the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Defense to include this incident in his ongoing investigation on the management of information classified by Hegseth.
“If it is true, this incident is another worrying example of the reckless contempt of Secretary Hegesh for the laws and protocols that all other military members must follow. He must immediately explain why, according to reports, he sent a text message to the classified information that could endanger the lives of US members in a commercial application that included his wife, brother and personal lawyer,” Reed said.
-ABC News’ Allison Pecorin
