The revelation that highly sensitive attack plans were shared on a commercial messaging app, possibly on personal mobile phones, has triggered outrage in Washington and calls from Democrats that members of Trump's national security team be fired over the leaks.
President Donald Trump's administration has sought to contain the fallout from the revelation that the March 15 chat included The Atlantic's editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg on the encrypted messaging app Signal.
Hegseth has repeatedly denied texting war plans, and Trump and his top advisers are saying no classified information was shared, bewildering Democrats and former US officials, who regard timing and targeting details as some of the most closely held material ahead of a US military campaign.
"I think that it's by the awesome grace of God that we are not mourning dead pilots right now," Democrat Jim Himes of Connecticut said at a hearing of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee.
Republican Senator Roger Wicker, who leads the Pentagon's oversight committee in the Senate, joined calls for an independent probe and said the texts appeared so sensitive, "I would have wanted it classified."
The chat did not appear to include any names or precise locations of Houthi militants being targeted or to disclose information that could have been used to target US troops carrying out the operation.
Pentagon officials aware of the planning believed that information Hegseth texted was classified at the time, one US official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity, raising questions over whether, when and how Hegseth's text messages may have been declassified.
Trump sought to play down the leak, calling it a "witch hunt" and defended Hegseth.
"Hegseth is doing a great job," he told reporters in the Oval Office, adding the Signal chat leak "doesn't bother me".
The president suggested that Signal may be a "defective" platform and "isn't very good".
"Everybody uses Signal, but it could be a defective platform, and we're gonna have to find that answer," Trump said.
He offered no evidence as to why the Signal app could be defective.
Goldberg, who had initially declined to publish the chat details, did so on Wednesday. The Atlantic magazine did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the release of the additional messages.
Hegseth's text started with the title "TEAM UPDATE" and included these details, according to The Atlantic:
"TIME NOW (1144et): Weather is FAVORABLE. Just CONFIRMED w/CENTCOM we are a GO for mission launch"
"1215et: F-18s LAUNCH (1st strike package)"
"1345: 'Trigger Based' F-18 1st Strike Window Starts (Target Terrorist is @ his Known Location so SHOULD BE ON TIME – also, Strike Drones Launch (MQ-9s)"
"1410: More F-18s LAUNCH (2nd strike package)"
"1415: Strike Drones on Target (THIS IS WHEN THE FIRST BOMBS WILL DEFINITELY DROP, pending earlier 'Trigger Based' targets)"
"1536 F-18 2nd Strike Starts – also, first sea-based Tomahawks launched."
"MORE TO FOLLOW (per timeline)"
"We are currently clean on OPSEC"
"Godspeed to our Warriors."
Hours later, national security adviser Mike Waltz confirmed to the group the killing of the Houthis' top missile expert.
"We had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend's building and it's now collapsed," Waltz wrote.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Hegseth was "merely updating the group on a plan that was underway & had already been briefed through official channels".
Senior US national security officials have classified systems that are meant to be used to communicate secret materials.
But CIA director John Ratcliffe testified at a Senate hearing that Waltz set up the Signal chat for unclassified co-ordination and that teams would be "provided with information further on the high side for high-side communication".
Waltz has said he took full responsibility for the breach as he had created the Signal group.
But on Wednesday, Waltz also played down the disclosure, saying on X: "No locations. No sources & methods. NO WAR PLANS. Foreign partners had already been notified that strikes were imminent."
with AP
