Signal leak fallout continues: The Atlantic publishes Trump officials’ chat messages on Yemen strikes
The White House is scrambling to explain how members of the administration accidentally shared military plans with a journalist on the group messaging app.
The fallout continues over a security breach in which high-ranking members of the Trump administration accidentally shared plans about a forthcoming U.S. military attack on Yemen with the top editor of the Atlantic magazine on the Signal messaging app.
Military and intelligence experts, along with some members of Congress, have expressed shock over the inadvertent leak, leading to questions about national security protocols and the use of unsecured channels for sensitive information.
President Trump and U.S. intelligence officials have tried to downplay the security risks, and insist no classified material was shared.
What happened, exactly?
The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, revealed in an article published on Monday that he knew about U.S. airstrikes against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen hours before they happened, because he was added to a Signal group chat where members of the Trump administration appeared to be discussing such war plans.
Goldberg said he received a Signal connection request on March 11 from someone whom he believed to be Michael Waltz, President Trump’s national security adviser. Two days later, Goldberg said he was added to a conversation with 18 members of the administration — including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard — where they talked about plans to bomb Yemen.
U.S. air and naval assets hit multiple Houthi targets in Yemen on March 15.
Goldberg said that he initially did not believe the Signal group chat was real. “I could not believe that the national-security leadership of the United States would communicate on Signal about imminent war plans,” he wrote. “I have never seen a breach quite like this.
“It is not uncommon for national-security officials to communicate on Signal,” Goldberg added. “But the app is used primarily for meeting planning and other logistical matters — not for detailed and highly confidential discussions of a pending military action. And, of course, I’ve never heard of an instance in which a journalist has been invited to such a discussion.”
What was the reaction from the White House?
White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said in a statement that the message thread described by Goldberg “appears to be authentic” and that security council officials were “reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain.”
Trump first told reporters on Monday that he knew nothing about the incident. Then, in a phone interview with NBC News, the president said he stood by Waltz.
“Michael Waltz has learned a lesson, and he’s a good man,” Trump said. The president suggested that a member of Waltz’s staff accidentally added Goldberg to the group.
Speaking to reporters at the White House Tuesday, Trump disparaged Goldberg and the Atlantic, calling the editor a “total sleazebag” and the 167-year-old publication a “failed magazine.”
On Wednesday, White House reporters asked Trump which members of his administration bore responsibility for the chat.
“It was Mike, I guess, I don’t know,” Trump responded.
Mike Waltz
When pressed on Hegseth’s role in the scandal, the president did not seem fully briefed on the fact that his defense secretary had shared sensitive information on Signal.
“How do you bring Hegseth into it? He had nothing to do with it,” Trump said.
What have people on the Signal group chat said?
In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday night, Waltz said that he takes “full responsibility” for the “embarrassing” security breach, and that he built the group chat himself.
“I take full responsibility. … I built the group,” Waltz said. “My job is to make sure everything’s coordinated.”
But Waltz also said he doesn’t know how Goldberg was added to the chat.
“I can tell you for 100% I don’t know this guy,” Waltz said, adding that he had spoken to Elon Musk for help in finding out what happened.
Appearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, Gabbard and Ratcliffe were grilled by Democrats over the breach, which they both sought to downplay.
During a House Intelligence Committee hearing Wednesday, Gabbard acknowledged the inclusion of a Goldberg on the Signal chat was a “mistake,” but said no classified information was shared.
Speaking to reporters in Hawaii on Monday, Hegseth flatly denied sharing any sensitive military information.
“Nobody was texting war plans,” Hegseth said. “And that’s all I have to say about that.”
He reiterated those comments on Tuesday.
“Nobody’s texting war plans,” Hegseth said. “I know exactly what I’m doing.”
During a news conference in Kingston, Jamaica, on Wednesday, Rubio said he hoped “there’ll be reforms and changes made so this never — it’s not going to happen again. It can’t.”
“Obviously, someone made a mistake. Someone made a big mistake and added a journalist. Nothing against journalists, but you ain’t supposed to be on that thing,” Rubio added.
What was the Atlantic’s response to denials that war plans were shared?
In the article published Monday, Goldberg did not reveal details of the strike plans, saying the information “could conceivably have been used to harm American military and intelligence personnel.”
But on Wednesday, the Atlantic published the full text thread from the Signal group under the headline: “Here Are the Attack Plans That Trump’s Advisers Shared on Signal.”
“The statements by Hegseth, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, and Trump — combined with the assertions made by numerous administration officials that we are lying about the content of the Signal texts — have led us to believe that people should see the texts in order to reach their own conclusions,” Goldberg and colleague Shane Harris explained.
The messages include specific details on the timing of launches by U.S. military jets that were to strike Houthi targets.
The Atlantic said that the thread it published was the entire text chain except for the name of a CIA officer that it withheld at the agency’s request.
What are security experts and other officials saying?
Current, former intelligence officials and Democratic lawmakers have expressed shock over the breach, wondering how members of the Trump administration would be discussing security plans on Signal in the first place.
“This Signal chat situation sheds light on a sloppy and grossly incompetent national security strategy from the Trump administration,” said Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
“Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that they’d be this reckless and careless with our national security,” Ned Price, a former CIA analyst who was deputy to the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the Biden administration, told NPR.
Price said he had spoken to former national security officials and colleagues involved in military planning, adding, “It’s fair to say … that heads are exploding.”
While most Republicans have avoided criticizing the administration over the breach, a few have spoken out.
Sen. Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Wednesday that the panel is calling for an independent investigation into the leak.
“Classified information should not be transmitted on unsecured channels — and certainly not to those without security clearances, including reporters. Period,” Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican from New York, wrote on X. “Safeguards must be put in place to ensure this never happens again.”
_________
Yahoo News
