Agencies Washington

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth created another Signal messaging chat that included his wife and brother where he shared similar details of a March military airstrike against Yemen's Houthi militants 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 authorized to be used to communicate sensitive or classified national defence information - included 13 people, the person said. They also confirmed the chat was dubbed "Defence ' Team Huddle."  The New York Times reported that the group included Hegseth's wife, Jennifer, who is 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 traveled with the defence secretary and attended high-level meetings. The White House late Sunday dismissed the report as a "non-story," suggesting that disgruntled former Pentagon employees were spreading false claims.

"No matter how many times the legacy media tries to resurrect the same non-story, they can't change the fact that no classified information was shared," said Anna Kelly, White House deputy press secretary.  "Recently-fired leakers' are continuing to misrepresent the truth to soothe their shattered egos and undermine the President's agenda, but the administration will continue to hold them accountable." 

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