Fact Check: Did Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth own a Russian email address?

WASHINGTON, DC: Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth recently faced backlash after The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, claimed he was added to a secret Signal group chat where Hegseth sent plans of imminent military strikes in Yemen.

Following this, a claim that Hegseth used to have a Russian email address has been circulating on social media. But is there any truth to this? Let us find out below.

Claim: Pete Hegseth owned a Russian email address

In March 2025, a claim emerged that Pete Hegseth used to own the Russian email address phegseth@mail.ru.

The Russian technology company VK owns the Mail.ru email-provider website, according to the fact-checking website Snopes. And the extension .ru pertains to Russia.

An X (formerly Twitter) user @zeitgeist8888 wrote, "Send Pete your appreciation at phegseth@mail.ru" and attached a screenshot of the email ID while hiding the password.

Similarly, another X user wrote, "Why does Pete Hegseth have a Russian email address ????" while sharing a post that read, "The password for phegseth@mail.ru matches the one used for phegseth@alumni.princeton.edu, which is the university that he studied at. Source: LeakPeek."

The rumor involved data such as the latest chapter of rumors about Trump's association with Russian interests, the Mail.ru email address, and information and passwords provided in past data breaches, a Princeton University email address matching Hegseth's first initial and last name, and the details of a Mail.ru user agreement, as per the outlet. 

White House spokesperson says claim that Pete Hegseth owned a Russian email address is 'fake'

Snopes reported that there wasn't enough evidence to conclusively link the Russian email address to the defense secretary.

Moreover, a White House spokesperson informed the fact-checking outlet that the rumor "is fake."

On Thursday, March 27, the German publication Der Spiegel reported a new development regarding the Signal chat fiasco.

They stated, "Now, reporting by DER SPIEGEL has found that the contact data of some of those officials, including mobile phone numbers, is freely accessible on the internet."

Pekka Kallioniemi, an expert on social media and disinformation as per the International Centre for Defence and Security in Estonia, wrote on X about Der Spiegel's reporting, "Interesting article about how the Trump administration's security advisors' mobile numbers, emails, and passwords can be found in commercial databases and publicly available leaks."

He added, "My question is, why does Pete Hegseth have a Russian email address?"

Meanwhile, Aric Toler from The New York Times took to X to write, "Be a bit wary of these claims of Hegseth having a secret Russian email. I've ran into ghost mail.ru and rambler.ru accounts made with usernames and passwords previously found in data leaks."

He added that the phegseth@mail.ru email address displayed in a list that "auto-populates ghost email addresses with previously leaked credentials."