Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth found himself at the center of more questions Friday night after a new report said he brought his wife, former Fox News producer, to a pair of meetings with foreign military counterparts in which sensitive information was discussed.
Jennifer Hegseth attended two such meetings with foreign officials, the Wall Street Journal reported.
One occurred at the Pentagon on March 6 between Pete Hegseth and U.K. Secretary of Defense John Healey a day after the United States announced it would no longer share military intelligence with Ukraine. In that meeting, officials discussed the reasoning behind the decision and discussed future military plans between the two nations, people familiar with the meeting told the Journal.
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Jennifer Hegseth also attended a meeting in February at NATO's headquarters in Brussels in which defense officials talked about their support for Ukraine, two people who attended the meeting told the Journal. Additionally, Pete Hegseth’s brother Philip Hegseth has also tagged along on official visits, the report said.
"At the closed-door discussions, national representatives routinely present confidential information, such as donations to Ukraine that they don’t want to be made public, according to officials," the report added.
The Journal's report comes as Pete Hegseth already faces fierce backlash for sharing imminent attack orders in a Signal group chat that included a reporter, unbeknownst to him.
Hegseth shared live updates about a U.S. airstrike on Yemen's Houthi militants, disclosing sensitive details such as launch timings.
Jennifer Hegseth's inclusion in such high-level meetings raised concerns among experts, who said it puts "staff on guard over what to say and to whom."
“When you have meetings with ministers or high-level NATO officials, those meetings almost always include sensitive security conversations,” Chuck Hagel, a Republican former secretary of defense under President Barack Obama, told the Journal. “If you are going to discuss top secret, national security issues, you have to be very selective. What’s the relevancy of the person you are inviting?”
Another ex-official put it even more bluntly.
“That would be strange and would not make any sense," the former official told the newspaper.