The Signal chat included Hegseth's wife, brother and lawyer, sources said.
President Donald Trump continues to take sweeping executive actions in his second term, including an order this week targeting a senior official from his first administration who became one of his critics.
Focus continues on the legal battle regarding Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a migrant who was living in Maryland when he was wrongfully deported by the administration.
President Donald Trump said he's been fully briefed on the shooting at Florida State University.
Trump called the shooting a "shame" and a "horrible thing." He said he will have more to say about the situation later.
The Trump administration filed a motion with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday asking the appellate court to stay the injunction and discovery orders issued by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
The court has also asked Xinis to stay her own rulings while the appellate court considers the issues.
The government contends that Xinis' amended preliminary injunction order, which she issued shortly after the Supreme Court weighed in, to facilitate Abrego Garcia's release from a prison in El Salvador "has set down the same unjustifiable path" of her first injunction.
This is the second time the Department of Justice has appealed Xinis' orders. This time, it is arguing that Xinis' post-Supreme Court injunction is unconstitutional and goes beyond what the high court authorized in its order, again focusing on competing interpretations of what it means to facilitate his release.
-ABC News' James Hill
The United States' top diplomats were in Paris on Thursday for discussions aimed at ending Russia's war in Ukraine.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff are expected to talk "with European counterparts to advance President Trump's goal to end the Russia-Ukraine war and stop the bloodshed," a spokesperson for Rubio said.
"While in Paris, [Rubio] will also discuss ways to advance shared interests in the region," the spokesperson said.
Amid the ongoing freeze in federal funding to Harvard University, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced on Wednesday the cancellation of two Department of Homeland Security grants to the university totaling over $2.7 million.
Noem is also demanding detailed records on Harvard’s foreign student visa holders’ "illegal and violent activities" by April 30, or the university will face "immediate loss" of Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP) certification, she announced.
The department's action follows the Trump administration's decision on Monday to freeze $2.2 billion in federal funding to Harvard University, "proposing the revocation of its tax-exempt status over its radical ideology," Noem said.
