WASHINGTON—Jenn Hegseth has never attended meetings with her husband, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, where either sensitive information or classified information was discussed, a Pentagon spokeswoman told The Daily Wire.
The statement refutes a report from The Wall Street Journal that Hegseth brought his wife to “sensitive meetings with foreign military officials.” Hegseth spokeswoman Kingsley Wilson told The Daily Wire that she made the Journal aware of the “inaccuracies” in its reporting, but that the publication stood by its reporting and chose not to update its story.
Further, the Wall Street Journal reporter who reached out initially sent the Pentagon a list of almost two dozen questions with a 90-minute deadline while the Defense team was traveling abroad in Japan, The Daily Wire has learned. When the Defense team received the inquiry, an official shared, it was past midnight in Japan.
The Defense Department told the Journal the deadline was unrealistic, and in the morning, told the publication that Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell would call as soon as they landed in Iwo Jima. However, the Journal published the story while the Pentagon team was in the air, between 8:00 and 9:30 a.m. Tokyo time. When Parnell called the reporter, that reporter said she stood by her reporting.
The incident further demonstrates to the Defense Department that legacy media outlets and D.C. politicians are “knives out” for Hegseth, a Defense Department official shared Monday — they’ll do “anything they can to undermine his efforts,” that official said.
Jennifer and Pete Hegseth (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The publication suggested that Hegseth’s wife’s presence by his side, whether in meetings with senators ahead of his confirmation or in meetings abroad with foreign officials, signaled that Hegseth is negligent in handling sensitive information. The Journal also highlighted that Jenn Hegseth formerly worked for Fox News as a producer and then as vice president at Fox Nation.
Parnell, the chief spokesman for Hegseth, praised Jenn Hegseth in response to the story.
“Secretary Hegseth’s wife is an incredibly accomplished woman and leader,” Parnell told The Daily Wire. “She is an asset to her husband and an advocate for military families.”
The publication claimed that Jenn Hegseth attended a “high-level discussion at the Pentagon” on March 6, a discussion that took place between U.K. Secretary of Defense John Healey and Secretary Hegseth shortly after the United States announced that it had cut off sharing military intelligence with Ukraine.
Two people familiar with the meeting told the Journal that the Pentagon meeting discussed the United States’ rationale behind ending military intelligence sharing with Ukraine as well as future military collaboration between the United States and Ukraine.
Jenn Hegseth exited the March 6 meeting “before any sensitive and classified discussions occurred,” Wilson told The Daily Wire.
The Journal also reported that Jenn Hegseth attended a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels, where allied defense officials discussed support for Ukraine.
Again, Wilson says that Jenn Hegseth attended only the public remarks at the NATO meeting.
She also pushed back on the Journal’s framing that Hegseth’s brother, Phillip Hegseth, was “currently traveling with Hegseth on a tour to visit American allies and bases in Asia.”
“He is conducting touch points with U.S. Coast Guard officials as a DHS senior advisor and liaison to DOD,” she explained, noting that Phillip Hegseth also traveled with his brother on the Defense Secretary’s trip to the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (NSGB), coordinating with ICE personnel in his role as a DHS senior advisor.
Additionally, the Journal attributed a number of items of information to Wilson herself that the spokeswoman says she never told the publication. The paper discussed Phillip Hegseth and his new roles with attribution to Wilson. The publication also attributes Wilson when it said that Phillip Hegseth was traveling with his brother in Asia and to Guantanamo Bay last month.
