Hegseth blames ousted officials for leaks in latest Signal chat scandal

Trump's defense secretary denies he was texting war plans' after reports of second chat to discuss military operations

The embattled US defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has defended his most recent use of the encrypted messaging app Signal to discuss sensitive military operations, blaming fired Pentagon officials for orchestrating leaks against the Trump administration.

In an interview with former colleagues at Fox News on Tuesday morning, the defense secretary suggested the problems stem from former officials, appointed by this administration, for leaking information to damage him and Donald Trump, adding that there was an internal investigation and that evidence would eventually be handed to the justice department.