Washington DC - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is back in hot water after his wife Jennifer Rauchet was seen attending meetings in which high-level military intelligence information was discussed.

A report from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) alleged that Hegseth's wife attended two meetings with foreign military counterparts, despite lacking expected security clearances for access to classified national security information.

While there are no hard and fast rules about such meetings, they are high-security events, and it is generally expected that all attendees have necessary security clearances.

Rauchet, a former Fox News producer, attended a meeting between Hegseth and his British counterpart, John Healey, shortly after the US cut off military intelligence sharing with Ukraine.

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She also attended a February NATO meeting in Brussels, in which discussions were also held over support for Ukraine and ongoing negotiations.

The WSJ report came less than a week after The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg revealed that he had been included in a top-secret Signal group chat in which classified information was shared about then-impending strikes in Yemen.

"That’s not normal at all," Delaware Senator Chris Coons told MSNBC's The Weekend when asked about Rauchet's presence. "On some of those trips, our spouses come along with us, but they are not allowed in any secret, sensitive, classified meeting with foreign heads of state, with foreign officials."

"Those meetings are usually conducted separately," he added. "Hegseth has one of the highest levels of classification access, he can’t just hand that to his wife and say, 'Here, honey, hold my beer and hold my classified information.'"