US Department of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth denied Monday that he had sent plans to attack Yemen via instant messaging, as reported by Jeffrey Goldberg, editor of The Atlantic magazine, who had allegedly been included in a chat involving senior US administration officials.
“No one was sending war plans, and that’s all I have to say on that,” he said when asked by the media about the report as he stepped off a plane at Hickam Air Force Base on the US island of Oahu in Hawaii.
Furthermore, the Pentagon chief used his speech to attack Goldberg, calling him a “deceitful and highly discredited so-called journalist who has made a career of peddling hoaxes time and time again.” “He’s the kind of guy who works with garbage. That’s what he does,” he added.
Hours earlier, the White House, through National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes, acknowledged that the messages, sent via the encrypted messaging app Signal, appeared to be authentic, without offering any explanation as to why high-ranking officials were handling national defense information outside of approved classified government systems.
According to The Atlantic, White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz created a group earlier this month that also included Vice President JD Vance; Secretary of State Marco Rubio; Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard; and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe.
They discussed attacks against Yemeni Houthi rebels, apparently unaware of the journalist’s presence. The documentation shared with the group included details about the weapons used, the targets, and the planned time of the attack, as Goldberg himself has revealed.
