Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has created another Signal messaging chat that included his wife and brother, where he shared the same details of a March military air strike against Yemen's Houthis that were sent in another chain with top Trump administration leaders, The New York Times reported.

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 "Defense Team Huddle.” 

The New York Times reported that the 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.

Hegseth shared the flight schedules for the F/A-18 Hornets targeting the Houthi group — essentially the same attack plans that he shared in a separate Signal chat the same day, according to the report.

The revelation of the additional chat group is sure to bring fresh criticism against Hegseth and the wider Trump administration after it has failed to take action so far against top national security officials who discussed plans for a military strike in Signal.

'Signalgate' incident

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.

The contents of the chat, which The Atlantic published, show that Hegseth listed weapons systems and a timeline for the attack on Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen last month.

After Goldberg disclosed the first Signal chat in March, senior Trump administration officials, including Hegseth, repeatedly denied that any classified information was shared among the participants.

"Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that," Hegseth told reporters.

The "Signalgate" incident raised questions about the administration's handling of classified military information after sensitive details about weapons packages, targets and timing were reportedly shared on the unsecured platform.