A person familiar with the contents and those who received the messages, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, confirmed the second chat to The Associated Press.
The second chat on Signal – which is a commercially available app not authorised to be used to communicate sensitive or classified national defence information – included 13 people, the person said. They also confirmed the chat was dubbed “Defence Team Huddle”.
The New York Times reported that group included Hegseth’s wife, Jennifer, a former Fox News producer, and his brother Phil Hegseth, who was hired at the Pentagon as a Department of Homeland Security liaison and senior adviser. Both have been travelling with the defence secretary and attending high-level meetings.
The first chat, set up by National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, included a number of Cabinet members and came to light because Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, was added to the group.