Hegseth's wife managing his image at the Pentagon
John Bowden,
The Independent
The wife of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took on an active role in managing his public appearances and even crafting messaging issued by the Department of Defense itself, a new report claimed on Wednesday. Jennifer Rauchet, the Washington Post reported, often acts as a go-between who transmits her husband's plans to agency staffers. The former Fox News producer does not hold an official position at the Pentagon but has been identified as a constant presence at the agency over the past several months. The Wall Street Journal first reported in March that Rauchet was present at two meetings between her husband and his foreign military counterparts where 'sensitive' information was discussed. At the time, the Pentagon declined to say if she had any kind of security clearance, which some spouses of officials sometimes do.
Now, the Post reports that Rauchet is involved in at least two group chats using the public encrypted Signal messaging app with Pentagon appointees, and at times has directed agency staffers directly on managing the secretary's image via social media. 'We would always hear that she was saying what kind of videos he should be doing, and what kind of statements he should be doing, and how the press should be handled,' one unnamed person told the Post.
Her inclusion in one Signal group chat was just one of several problematic factors which snowballed into a scandal over the Trump administration's use of the group messaging app earlier this year. Hegseth, along with other top US officials including National Security Adviser Michael Waltz and Vice President JD Vance, was outed as a member of a Signal text chain on which specific sensitive information about US plans to attack Yemen were discussed prior to those attacks taking place. Also on that text chain (accidentally) was the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, who reported the messages after the attack. Though Rauchet was not part of that primary text chain, she was on a separate chain with Hegseth's brother, Phil Hegseth, a Pentagon appointee working as liason with DHS, and the secretary's personal lawyer. On that second chain, the secretary reportedly shared very similar information about the attack prior to it being carried out.
The breach in security has dragged the administration down for weeks and led to calls especially for the resignation of Hegseth, who shared the attack plans on the text chain, as well as similar condemnation of Waltz for his apparent erroneous inclusion of Goldberg in the messages. President Donald Trump has expressed his support for the two officials.
But Rauchet's inclusion in the text chains and continued presence at the Pentagon may in fact be a more significant issue for the administration. The Pentagon has not explained her role at the agency or completed a formal inquiry into whether any of the information shared in the two chains was classified, which Hegseth and others have strongly denied. The agency's inspector general launched an investigation in early April, which has yet to reach a conclusion.
A DoD spokeswoman said in response to the Post's reporting: 'Secretary Hegseth has delivered more victories to the DoD in 100 days than most Secretaries have in four years. We are focused on RESULTS.' Critics of the administration say that the case is a clear-cut example of Hegseth and others flouting longstanding Defense Department protocols and possibly violating the law regarding sharing of classified information. 'The most recent revelations about Hegseth's having shared military plans with members of his personal circle demonstrates a brazen disdain for rules and protocols that Americans expect their leaders to follow.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Middle East Eye
3 days ago
- Middle East Eye
US Senate permits arms sales to Qatar, UAE amidst controversy over jet gifted to Trump
Arms sales to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates have been given the go-ahead after a Democratic Party-led effort to halt them failed in a US Senate vote on Wednesday. The resolutions failed 39-56, allowing the deal to proceed. Democrats had introduced legislation in the Republican-controlled Senate to block weapons sales to the two Gulf states over allegations of corruption. Lawmakers alleged that the Pentagon's acceptance of a $400m Qatari jet and an Emirati firm's recent investment in a Trump-affiliated cryptocurrency had compromised the integrity of the sales. The resolutions sought to stymie a $1.9bn weapons sale to Qatar and a $1.3bn weapons sale to the UAE. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters The Qatar sale consisted of eight MQ-9 Reaper drones, a model previously employed by the US in Gaza and Yemen, along with Hellfire II missiles and 227-kg bombs. The second resolution opposed the sale of six Chinook helicopters to the UAE. Arms sales to the UAE have previously faced criticism over the UAE's support for the Rapid Support Forces, a Sudanese faction accused by some, including the US State Department, of committing acts of genocide. Corruption accusations Democrats say the weapons sales are tainted with corruption. Qatar recently gifted the Pentagon a $400m jet, which will be refurbished to serve as Air Force One before being retired to US President Donald Trump's presidential library. The jet had become the centre of political controversy after Democrats likened the gift to a bribe. How Turkey and Qatar are playing an outsized role in Trump's new Middle East Read More » Additionally, last month, an Emirati firm invested $2bn in a Trump-affiliated cryptocurrency. Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, who backed the resolution opposing the arms sales, alleged that these deals compromised the integrity of the sales. 'My case is that so long as the relationship is corrupted by the gifts to Trump, we can't move forward on these arms sales… there are legitimate underlying policy debates on the two sales, but my case here is you should look beyond the merits of the sale and really focus on the corruption,' Murphy stated earlier this week. The resolutions to block the arms sales failed, however, with five Democrats joining Republicans to support the sales. Senate Republicans dismissed the resolutions as political theatre, with Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Jim Risch saying they 'make arms sales to some of our closest allies in the Middle East about partisan politics'. Republican Senator Rand Paul voted "present" on the resolutions.
Middle East Eye
3 days ago
- Middle East Eye
Genocide happens when Israelis believe they're above the law, Holocaust scholar says
When Swedish activist Greta Thunberg arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris on Tuesday after being deported by Israeli authorities, a reporter asked her why governments around the world weren't mobilising to break the three-month siege on Gaza, as Thunberg had just attempted. "Because of racism, that's the simple answer," she said, making several references to Israel committing "genocide". After 20 months of Israel's war on Gaza, more than 55,000 have been identified as dead - a number presumed to be an undercount, according to the medical journal The Lancet - and an air, land, and sea blockade is preventing food aid from entering the strip. What is happening to the people of Gaza has not been officially assessed as genocide by the very governments that drew up the post-World War II international order. But several countries, as well as many international rights groups and experts, now qualify Israel's actions as an act of genocide. The legal definition of genocide is the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. The operative word being "intent". New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters That definition was written in a different era, and with different dynamics in mind. 'War between civilised nations' Raz Segal, an Israeli associate professor of holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University, told Middle East Eye that labelling the war on Gaza a genocide is critical because he sees the issue as beyond the stipulations of international law. "Israeli Jews are imagining that they're fighting a colonial war against barbarians," he said. "[They] are completely thinking they are outside the law." "[This] goes back to the origins of international law, which emerged in order to regulate wars between civilised nations - that is, between Europeans. It was never supposed to apply to what we might call today 'counterinsurgency' or 'colonial warfare'." Speaking at the Arab Center Washington DC's annual conference on Palestine on Wednesday, Segal said the "dehumanisation of Palestinians in Israeli Jewish society is very deep" and that only a change in political structures can create a shift in attitudes. 'This kind of social and political atmosphere doesn't change quickly at all. It's an intergenerational process,' he said. 'Israeli Jews are imagining that they're fighting a colonial war against barbarians' - Raz Segal, Israeli historian "In 1945 Nazi Germany is defeated, right? Does that mean that millions and millions and millions of Nazis in Germany change their mind?" There had been warnings about impending genocide in Gaza since 2009, after Israel's alleged use of white phosphorus in its attacks on the enclave. In 2023, just weeks after the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel, the United Nations warned that without a ceasefire, there could be a genocide in Gaza. In January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found it "plausible" that Israel has committed acts that violate the Genocide Convention. New satellite imagery analysis by Dr He Yin of Kent State University, cited by The Washington Post, shows that up to 98 percent of all vegetation across Gaza has been destroyed, meaning the basic conditions to sustain life are no longer there. But Segal told MEE not to "get too caught up on the category of genocide, especially when we think about the broader framework - the ongoing Nakba". The Nakba, the catastrophe in Arabic, is the name given to the expulsion of more than 750,000 people from their homes and land in the lead up to the establishment of Israel in 1948. "We can definitely say that it's about elimination, destruction, forced displacement, removal, about creating a greater Israel with maximum territory and minimum or no Palestinians." Two things at once In the keynote address at the conference delivered by Amnesty International secretary general Agnes Callamard, she insisted that Israel's stated position - that it is only doing what it must in Gaza to defeat Hamas - does not rule out a genocide taking place. "There is absolutely no doubt that there is a genocidal intention," she said. "And genocidal intention can be happening in a non-conflict. It can be happening alongside military objectives. It's really important to highlight this." "What is unfolding in Gaza is not the result of logistical or security challenges, as Israel wants to pretend, and it is not the result of recklessness, either. It is intentionally engineered," Callamard added. 'The ICC is dead to us': America declares war on international justice Read More » She urged governments and civil society to "erect barricades, legal barricades, constitutional barricades, any kind of barricades" to protect the International Criminal Court (ICC) as it comes under attack from the Trump administration for its outstanding arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. Three other warrants issued for Hamas leaders are effectively void, after Israel killed them all. "The entire international legal system now is basically under threat," Segal told MEE. Referring to ICC prosecutor Karim Khan's announcement about the warrants one year ago, Segal noted Khan's insistence on a key message: "International law applies equally, and if it won't apply equally, the whole system will come down." "International law is flawed, and international law has discarded millions and millions of people around the world and discarded Palestinians well before [7 October 2023], he added. Israel 'cannot be a Jewish state' But the principle of having international law that defines acts of violence and protects the vulnerable is necessary and worth saving, Segal told MEE. To that effect, a "long-term vision" for an Israel that can rejoin the community of nations and abide by international law is that it "cannot be a Jewish state", Segal told the audience at the Arab Center Washington DC. 'We must be very loud about the fact that people must fear, they must fear their complicity in the genocide' - Agnes Callamard, Amnesty International 'It needs to be a state where everyone there, Jews, Palestinians and others have equal rights. Their dignity is treated equally. Their belonging to the place is treated equally. That's the change of the political structure.' Assessing the statements of Israeli leaders across the political spectrum over the past 20 months "doesn't require a degree in comparative literature", he said. "Notice the clear conflation of Hamas and all Palestinians in Gaza. Notice the clear conflation of military rationale and the intentional targeting of civilians. This is all in front of our eyes... the only way to deal with [Palestinians] is to destroy them." For Callamard, it is political will that holds back the international community from taking punitive measures against Israeli officials. "We must be very loud about the fact that people must fear, they must fear their complicity in the genocide," Callamard told the conference. The alternative, Segal said, sets a dangerous precedent. "Israel's attack on Gaza is becoming a model for the very small and murderous minority of people around the world."
The National
3 days ago
- The National
US embassy evacuations signal threat of strike on Iran, experts say
The US staff evacuations from its embassies in the Middle East on Thursday signals the threat of either an Israeli or American attack on Iran, experts told The National, as tension heightens across the region. US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that US personnel were being moved from the potentially 'dangerous' Middle East as nuclear talks with Iran faltered and fears grew of a regional conflict. 'The evacuation leaks signal that the threat of Israeli strikes on Iran looms closer on the horizon,' Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East programme at London's Chatham House, told The National. Tehran had earlier threatened to target US military bases in the region if conflict breaks out and if it were attacked over its nuclear programme, amid mounting speculation that Israel could strike the country's facilities. The orders to US embassy staff in Iraq was 'based on our latest analysis', according to the US State Department. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth authorised family members of US military stationed across the region to leave, according to a Pentagon statement. [The move] could be related to possible US or Israeli strikes on acts of resistance targets, and it's of a significantly large enough threat and a large enough scale that they expect retaliation Farzan Sabet, managing researcher at the Geneva Graduate Institute The State Department also said US government employees and family members in Israel are restricted from travelling outside major cities such as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem until further notice. The move could be 'related to possible US or Israeli strikes on acts of resistance targets, and it's of a significantly large enough threat and a large enough scale that they expect retaliation, hence the evacuation', Farzan Sabet, managing researcher at the Geneva Graduate Institute, told The National. Mr Sabet said the move could be 'co-ordinated signalling because we've also seen many leaks about Israeli preparations to strike Iran to generate leverage for the US in nuclear talks with Iran'. It comes ahead of a sixth round of talks between Washington and Tehran in an attempt to reach a nuclear deal. Mr Trump has threatened to bomb the country if Iran refuses to reach an agreement. The US has given conflicting comments, though in recent weeks Mr Trump has more firmly stated that Tehran must stop its enrichment altogether. The Omani-mediated talks will be held in Muscat on Sunday in a final attempt to get a framework and deal on Tehran's nuclear activities and the lifting of Iranian sanctions. The threat from Iran could be directed more at Israel, given reports of its readiness to attack nuclear sites if talks fail, rather than the US, Yesar Al Maliki, a Gulf Analyst at MEES, told The National. 'US foreign policy is divided between isolationist and interventionist agendas within administration ranks, Tehran's messaging could be directed at the former group,' he said. Iran is 'under pressure as talks with the US are yet to produce a mutually agreeable compromise on enrichment', he said. Iraq under possible threat Iraq 's leadership across the spectrum has been very concerned from any Israeli attacks on the country, Renad Mansour, director of the Iraq initiative at London's Chatham House, told The National. Prime Minister Mohamed Shia Al Sudani's 'government has managed thus far to keep Iraq insulated or relatively insulated from the wider violence and conflict', he said. However, the main concern is 'whether either Israel or the US, especially some of the neoconservative elements in the US administration want to target Iran via Iraq, could push for this policy'. 'Iraq has always been connected in a way to the wider regional conflicts,' he said, adding that Baghdad still has the Popular Mobilisation Forces which 'is somehow more or less connected to Iran's networks in the region and the axis of resistance'. In response to the move by Mr Trump, an Iraqi military spokesman, Sabah Al Numan, said on Thursday that the evacuation of some US embassy personnel is a 'regulatory precautionary measure related to them'. Omar Al Nidawi, programmes director at Enabling Peace in Iraq Centre thinks that the "sudden unprompted move and Trump's remarks yesterday that the region 'could be a dangerous place' suggests it was more likely a stunt meant to put pressure on Iran ahead of talks than a real security precaution based on actual concerns", he told The National.
