New unsecured chats used by Hegseth, also to inform foreign governments

US defence secretary allegedly handled sensitive information on encrypted non-government app: family members and associates also involved

Details continue to emerge about the ‘Signalgate’ scandal involving Pete Hegseth, US Secretary of Defence and former familiar face of Fox News. According to reports in the Wall Street Journal, Hegseth allegedly used at least a dozen chats created on an encrypted app that was not considered secure for official communications, including contacts with senior Pentagon officials.

The chats were not only about family or internal team exchanges, but were also used for institutional matters: foreign travel, media interviews, agenda details and, on at least one occasion, information about ongoing military operations. In particular, Hegseth allegedly ordered the communication of imminent military actions to foreign governments via this platform, violating security protocols.

What makes the affair even more delicate is the involvement of Marine Colonel Ricky Buria, Hegseth’s military assistant, who allegedly had access to his private mobile phone. In March, Buria himself allegedly published details of an imminent US attack in Yemen in a chat shared with his wife, brother and Hegseth’s personal lawyer.

The scandal, which broke at the end of March with the revelation of the chat by the editor of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, has already provoked the first institutional consequences. Mike Waltz, National Security Advisor, was removed after mistakenly adding Goldberg to the chat.

The nonchalant use of unprotected channels to handle confidential information now casts new shadows on the Trump administration’s homeland security management and protocols in its second term.

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